MAIS.L Regulatory News (MAIS)

9 July 2013

blur (Group) plc

("blur," the "Group" or the "Company")

Q2 Metrics Update

blur 3.0 drives jump in values and volumes

blur (Group) Plc (BLUR), the technology company that's reinventing commerce at blurgroup.com, continued its success with strong growth in all its core metrics in Q2. The quarter saw the launch of version 3.0 of its s-commerce platform, proving scalability of this release with significant growth in both volume and values. There was 125% y-o-y growth in number of new projects, a 315% y-o-y growth in total value of projects submitted and a 110% y-o-y growth in average project value during the quarter. Approximately 1,000 new businesses are currently adopting s-commerce on blur Group's Exchange each month which is a marked acceleration.

Philip Letts, CEO blur Group commented on the outstanding quarter: "This quarter was one of the most satisfying to date, with the launch of blur 3.0 being an absolute highlight as it is the foundation for future scalability and growth. We're used to seeing growth in core metrics, but this quarter wasn't just marked by the continued growth in businesses using the Exchange, but also in the rapid increase in the size of the initial projects and the budget commitments of those services buyers who are becoming platform buyers. At the end of the quarter we reached the point where 1,000 new businesses are adopting our s-commerce platform each month. The confidence of the public investors was especially pleasing for our secondary placing and these metrics, and our continuing growth reinforces our first-mover advantage in the $2tn s-commerce market, rewarding that support."

New projects submitted

● The highest number ever of new projects in a quarter, 410 with 12 of these projects valued at over $100k and 2 at over $500k

● 1 project worth $3.6m for the national roll out of a new product for a US transportation group

● Highest ever total project values of $9.4m, representing an average project value of $23k

● New customers included Danone, Opinio Group, The Red Flag Group, Randall & Aubin, Mobil2 and Benicomp

The 125% growth in new projects in Q2 was facilitated by the new version of blur's s-commerce platform, blur 3.0, launched at the end of April 2013. With project categorisation systems being included in each of the eight exchanges, the s-commerce model now drives more direct transactions. The quarter saw the milestone of 2,000 projects being passed at the beginning of June: it took nearly 4 years to reach the first 1,000 and less than 10 months to reach the second thousand, showing the rate of blur's growth and continuing momentum.

The platform upgrade also incorporated an increase in the project value ranges, with the maximum increased from $200k up to $1m+, the need for which being clearly demonstrated by the total value of projects submitted in the quarter reaching $9.41m. This represents a 130% increase y-o-y and included two projects above $500k, and one project with a total value of over $3m. This helped drive the average project value to $22,900.

The majority of projects came from the US, meaning that for the last 12 months the US has been the primary market for blur Group. This region represented 56% of all projects submitted. In total, projects were received from 17 different countries in the quarter.

The quarter saw 3 significant projects from the FMCG sector, with brand insight and launch campaigns the first projects as part of a plan to kick off longer term platform adoption. These high-profile projects showed the increasing success of the corporate sales teams in driving adoption of the platform from initial projects to cross-business use.

The largest project of the quarter came from a US transportation group looking to launch, promote, market and handle the distribution of a complete product line to the independent trucking industry in each of the states.

Projects completed

● Projects completed grew to 129 in the quarter

● 143% y-o-y growth

The growth in projects kicked off on the Exchange continues, with the number of completed projects increasing to 129 from 53 in Q2 2012 (a 143% increase).

Experts

● Over 28,000 expert service providers now on the eight Exchanges with 2,834 joining in the quarter

● blur Technology, one of the three newest Exchanges, now represents 4% of all service providers and technology services projects are being regularly submitted

At the end of the quarter there were 28,144 experts on the eight exchanges representing a 42% increase since Q2 2012.

The fastest growing Exchanges were content and technology. The three most recently launched exchanges of Technology, Legal and Accounting now account for 8% of all service providers.

Other blur Group Developments

● Over-subscribed secondary fundraising of $11.5m

● blur 3.0 unifying experience across all Exchange users and driving scalability

● 155 affiliates now on the Exchange and partnerships announced with CueSongs and MarketInvoice

The launch of blur 3.0 was the most significant platform development since the Exchange was launched. It unifies the experience of service providers, customers, partners and visitors on a scalable web platform that streamlines the s-commerce process. blur 3.0 has laid the foundation for new apps that will continue to automate the process and drive the volume of users on the Exchange up, while shortening project timescales and increasing process efficiency. The first such app, blurSense, was launched post the quarter end.

The secondary fundraising outcome was a strong endorsement of blur's first mover advantage in a $2tn global market for business services. The over-subscribed round raised $11.5m, with Investec one of the major new institutional investors, taking a 7.76% shareholding in the Company.

blur's affiliate program, which launched in September last year, grew substantially in the quarter with 110 new affiliates joining, making 155 in total, as blur partnered with b2b affiliate networks worldwide. In line with blur's global reach, it now has affiliates in 37 countries.

For further information please contact:

About blur (Group) plc at blurgroup.com

blur Group is a technology company reinventing how businesses do commerce at blurgroup.com. Its Global Services Exchange delivers services differently: a new way to buy, manage and pay for core services. Over 30,000 businesses in 141 countries have adopted this s-commerce platform and changed the way they work.

blur Group (BLUR) is a public company headquartered in the UK with offices in the US and Europe. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market. blur was founded in January 2006 and launched in alpha in 2007 with the full, formal launch of the Global Services Exchange in January 2010. At that time, just over three project briefs per month were submitted. Now 100 projects per month from companies like Broadridge, Coral, Exceed, HCA, Momentive, Red Commerce, the Financial Times, Berlitz, Butlins, GE Healthcare and Tyco are received. Over the same time, average project value has grown from approximately $1,500 in 2010 to $22,943 in Q2 2013.

Today, more than 2,180 projects have been submitted with a combined value of over $33.55 million. These have come from the US, UK, Europe, Africa and Asia with over 28,000 expert service providers on eight exchanges responding to them.