The Whispir Ltd (ASX: WSP) share price is gaining today, up more than 2% in morning trade. At the time of writing, the Whispir share price has retreated slightly to $4.16, down 1.2%.
This comes following the release of the cloud-based communication platform provider's financial results for the half-year ending 31 December (H1 FY21).
Financial results for H1 FY21
In this morning's ASX release, Whispir reported a 29.2% increase in its Annualised Recurring Revenue (ARR) to $47.4 million. That's up from ARR of $36.7 million over the prior corresponding half year. The company credited most of the boost to increased activity from its existing customers.
Total revenue of $23.1 million was up 27.3% over the prior corresponding period (PCP).
Bringing 77 net new customers aboard during the half-year, Whispir reported it now has 707 customers, an increase of 38.9% from the first half of the 2020 financial year.
Earnings before income, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was $(1.8) million. Though still negative, this represents a 61% improvement year-on-year.
Commenting on the results, Whispir's CEO Jeromy Wells said:
Our Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) operations continue to outperform our expectations with revenue increasing 30.2% over the PCP. Our enterprise customers are spending more with us as they increase use cases, utilising our contemporary tools to solve more of their communications challenges. This region is also experiencing strong growth in new customers as organisations look for platforms that can be implemented quickly to digitise their business communications…
In line with our five-year product roadmap, we continue to add new features and functionality to improve user experience. Enhanced platform functionality with AI-inferred insights will enable us to better serve our existing customers with additional data driving more valuable, higher margin products and supporting our transition to becoming a communications intelligence company.
Whispir spent $4.6 million on research and development (R&D) during the half-year to deliver its five-year product roadmap. The company expects to increase its R&D expenditures in the second half of the 2021 financial year.
Looking ahead, Whispir upgraded its guidance of the FY21 EBITDA from $(6.2)–$(4.8) million to $(4.5)–$(3.0) million.
Whispir share price snapshot
Whispir is among the star performers over the past 12 months, with shares up 198%. By comparison, the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) is down 3% over that same time.
So far in 2021, the Whispir share price is up just over 17%.
