The Whispir Ltd (ASX: WSP) share price is on the move on Wednesday morning.
At the time of writing, the communications workflow platform provider's shares are up 7% to $2.82.
Despite this gain, the Whispir share price is still down 23.5% in 2021.
Why is the Whispir share price charging higher?
The catalyst for the rise in the Whispir share price on Wednesday has been the release of its fourth quarter update.
That update revealed that Whispir finished the year in a positive fashion, leading to solid recurring revenue growth over the full year.
According to the release, the company finished the period with annualised recurring revenue (ARR) of $53.6 million. This represents an increase of 28.5% on the prior corresponding period and 6.6% on the third quarter.
Management advised that this quarter on quarter growth was driven largely by existing customers increasing their usage on the Whispir platform. This led to customer revenue retention standing at 115.9% at the end of the period.
Also supporting its growth was the addition of 51 net new customers during the quarter, taking its total to 801. This represents growth of 27.1% over the 12 months.
Strong balance sheet
In respect to cash, Whispir's quarterly cash receipts were $13.5 million, which was 18.9% higher than the prior corresponding period. This left the company with cash and equivalents of $49.2 million at the end of June. Management believes this leaves it well-funded to accelerate its growth strategy.
Whispir's CEO, Jeromy Wells, said: "The structural shift by organisations to digital stakeholder communication continues to gain momentum and we are seeing this through new customer sign-ups and increasing usage across our existing customer base."
"To capitalise on this growing demand, we are investing in artificial intelligence and machine learning to accelerate the development of our data-led product roadmap. Sales and marketing activities also continue to be a focus as we support new and existing customers across all key regions, including our largest market opportunity in North America," he added.
While no guidance was given for the year ahead, Mr Wells appears confident on the company's prospects in FY 2022.
He concluded: "Looking ahead we see substantial opportunity for growth in the underserved North American SME market, and our capital raising earlier in the year positions us well to continue unlocking these opportunities in FY22."
