In the first quarter of 2020, Sidetrade generated €6.8m in revenue, organic growth of 14% vs. 2019 for the same period (which was already up 14 vs. Q1 2018). In fact, Q1 growth was not impacted by the covid-19 pandemic.
The recurrence of Sidetrade’s SaaS business model partially shields Sidetrade from the economic crisis. Let us recall that 89% of Sidetrade’s revenues are recurrent, based on multi-year contracts (initial period of 41.1 months, on average), and that the company has an extremely low churn rate of 3.9%.
Optimistic outlook for 2020 and beyond
As the unpaid invoices surges, Sidetrade provides invaluable data
The pandemic has resulted in an unparalleled increase in late payment. In UK, for example, unpaid invoices have risen a worrying 42% on 04/04/2020. To monitor the impact of the pandemic on overdue invoices, Sidetrade has launched an open-access tracker which anonymously shows payment behavior trends for 3.7m businesses in six European countries (France, the UK, Spain, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands).
Sidetrade’s exclusive technology is used to analyze over 26 million invoices, issued since 1 January 2020, totalling to €54bn in B2B transactions. The tracker is made possible by Sidetrade’s unique B2B transactions database, confirming the company’s leadership position.
Seeing small and medium enterprises through the crisis
Faced with an explosion of late payments, SMEs are hit hard by the pandemic, threatening their very survival. In response, Sidetrade decided to scale down their technology, initially designed for larger companies, and offer it free of charge to smaller businesses (sales of €10m to €500m) during the crisis. CashControl controls and secures cashflow (see press release of 31 March 2020). Backed by powerful machine-learning algorithms, the technology features unlimited digital dunning letter, as well as management of payment schedules.
The success of the special CashControl offer could be a springboard for Sidetrade to break into a new market segment.
Covid-19 quickening the pace of digital transformation
Crisis conditions have visibly pushed companies to more readily adopt new technologies and cloud-based tools, pushing the world more quickly toward a digital economy. Virtualization, robotic process automation and AI technologies are not in the pipeline; they are here and now. For SaaS editors like Sidetrade, accelerated digital transformation is an awesome growth opportunity. A further growth opportunity comes from the need of businesses squeezed by the crisis to shorten the order-to-cash process and get the revenue in. Sidetrade is extremely well positioned to help them. Let us recall that this is a high-growth market estimated at $3bn by the year 2024, according to a Research & Markets study.
With a SaaS model that has proven its resilience, Sidetrade is set to make a name for itself in the global AI market. Management is looking forward to yet another year of growth.
