Launched in 2000, the United Nations (UN) Global Compact is a voluntary leadership platform for the development, implementation and disclosure of responsible business practices, with over 15,000 companies and 3,800 non-business signatories based in over 160 countries and more than 69 Local Networks. The UN Global Compact calls for companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption and to take action in support of UN goals and issues embodied in the Sustainable Development Goals.
Sidetrade is proud to join this community of corporates globally committed to creating a sustainable, diverse and equitable future for all.
Olivier Novasque, CEO at Sidetrade, commented: As an industry-recognized leader, we understand the significant role we have in driving positive change and being a responsible corporate citizen. We are proud to join the UN Global Compact, reinforcing our commitment to creating a better future for all.
By joining this initiative, Sidetrade leverages the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact to build its corporate responsibility plan and will demonstrate its dedication through concrete actions.
Sidetrade has already implemented the UN Global Countdown to International Women’s Day, a gender equality learning journey. Through weekly activities from 1 February to 8 March 2023, Sidetrade employees worldwide are participating in a set of interactive and impactful experiences, offered in multiple languages.
Olivier Novasque, CEO of Sidetrade commented:
To date, fiscal 2022 represents the best performance in Sidetrade’s history, bolstered by unprecedented commercial momentum. Factoring in our 2022 bookings for new ARR and related services, in just one year, we have successfully become the equivalent of a SaaS player that is already expected to generate revenue of €10 million+ in 2023. This success is mainly the result of an inflationary environment fostering the deployment of Order-to-Cash solutions worldwide, and our technological edge in Artificial Intelligence, combined with the fast and impressive ramp-up in our North American activities. We can now confirm that our offensive US expansion strategy, kick-started 18 months ago, is producing results. North America has already proven that it is a robust growth driver for Sidetrade, and this is just the beginning. Our commercial successes with global businesses in preference over our direct North American competitors confirms the positioning of Sidetrade, which in a matter of months, has grown into a leader of the Order-to-Cash market in the United States. Together, we are proud of what we have achieved. As such, I wish to commend our teams across the board for their commitment, talent and resilience. Against a highly volatile and uncertain background of increased redundancy and cost reduction plans within SaaS companies, Sidetrade’s original model to continue an offensive investment policy and support its growth while maintaining profitability will provide a key competitive advantage in the months ahead..
All-time record bookings in 2022 with more than €10 million in Annual Contract Value, and €6.44 million in ARR, up 36%
Excellent Q4, in line with performance for 2022
After setting a record for SaaS bookings in Q1 2022, Sidetrade delivered the best Q4 performance in its history with a profit of €2.03 million in New Annual Recurring Revenue (“new ARR”), compared with €1.67 million in Q4 2021; a +22% increase. The total value of these new subscription contracts over their initial contract periods (excluding renewals and services) represents €6.88 million of Total Contract Value (“TCV”) in Q4 2022 versus €4.15 million in Q4 2021; a +66% increase.
In Q4 2022, international orders represented 54% of all bookings, largely driven by North America (46% of total bookings).
To these SaaS bookings should be added €1.18 million of additional related services in Q4 2022 (implementation, configuration and training excluding recurring services) – compared with €0.81 million in Q4 2021, a +45% increase. As a reminder, almost all of these services will be invoiced within twelve months of their signing.
In total, the Annual Contract Value (“ACV”) of these bookings in Q4 2022 was €3.21 million compared with €2.48 million in Q4 2021 (excluding recurring services); a +29% increase.
Record bookings in 2022, with more than €10 million in Annual Contract Value
In 2022, Sidetrade generated €6.44 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (“ARR”) compared to €4.75 million in 2021; a +36% increase.
Bookings linked to services (implementation, configuration and training, excluding recurring services) also achieved robust growth, up from €2.81 million in 2021 to €3.84 million in 2022; a +37% increase. In total, and considering that almost all of these services will be invoiced over the next twelve months
(excluding recurring services which can be invoiced over several years), the 2022 fiscal year enables Sidetrade to add the equivalent of €10.28 million in Annual Contract Value (“ACV”) compared to €7.56 million for fiscal 2021; a +36% increase.
In addition to both record quarterly performances in 2022 (Q1 2022 is the all-time high for a quarter while Q4 2022 is the best Q4 in Sidetrade’s history), the increase in bookings is based on a continuous solid upward trend on a half-yearly basis, as illustrated by the double-digit half-year sequential growth (+12.4%) on average.
| SIDETRADE | H1 2021 (€m) |
H2 2021 (€m) |
H1 2022 (€m) |
H2 2022 (€m) |
Average half-year sequential change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New SaaS Subscriptions (ARR) |
2.14 | 2.62 | 3.04 | 3.41 | 12.4% |
North America has already exceeded expectations, becoming a robust growth driver with 51% of total bookings in 2022
In 2022, international orders represented 66% of all bookings, driven largely by the multiple commercial successes in the United States.
The first eighteen months of US business have seen Sidetrade’s North American bookings continue on a strong growth trajectory, already representing more than half the Group total (51%) on a full-year basis in 2022, which is significantly above the target set by Management of 33% by Q4 2022. Sidetrade’s commercial wins in preference over local competitors with major North American players such as DXC Technologies in Q1 2022 (see the press release issued on 02/21/2022), Insights Enterprise in Q2 2022 (see the press release issued on 09/06/2022) and HPE, signed in Q4 2022, have already positioned the Group as one of the US’s go-to Order-to-Cash partners.
On the one hand, this excellent commercial momentum demonstrates Sidetrade’s technological edge in Artificial Intelligence with recognition by Gartner® as one of three Leaders for Integrated Invoice-to-Cash Applications in its 2022 Magic Quadrant publication (see the press release issued on 04/11/2022). On the other, it recognizes Sidetrade’s boldness to invest substantially and methodically in an experienced Order-to-Cash salesforce which will continue its ramp-up in the quarters ahead.
Sidetrade now has a workforce of close to 300 employees, with over 60% of its teams based outside of France, including 53 North American colleagues. Only eighteen months after its US operations were officially launched, Sidetrade has a salesforce that includes three experienced VP Sales Executives and 11 Enterprise Account Sales Managers all over the country, supported by three presales and a Chief Marketing Officer now located in the US. To ensure this salesforce is fully equipped to quickly penetrate the North American market in 2023, Sidetrade made additions by hiring a team of 11 sales lead generation experts on October 1, 2022, who work from the Group’s North American Business Hub opened in Calgary, Canada (see the press release issued on 10/04/2022).
| SIDETRADE (ARR) |
2021 (€m) |
2022 (€m) |
Change |
|---|---|---|---|
|
New SaaS Subscriptions |
4.75 | 6.44 | 36% |
|
of which North America |
1.04 | 3.27 | 214% |
The total value of these new subscription contracts over their initial contract periods (excluding renewals and services) reached a peak of €20.7 million of Total Contract Value (“TCV”) for the first time in 2022 versus €12.9 million in 2021, a dramatic increase of +60%. In particular, this surge is attributed to an extension of the initial contract period for new customers (excluding renewals), up from 36.2 to 44.9 months, thereby increasing the economic model’s high predictability.
Overall, in FY 2022, bookings by new customers (“New Business”) and Cross-selling represented 80% of the total versus 72% in FY 2021, with the remaining 20% of bookings accounting for Upselling of additional modules to existing customers compared to 28% in FY 2021.
Lastly, attrition remains under control for enterprise accounts with a churn rate of 3.83% as of December 31, 2022, which represents an excellent result for the SaaS industry, whose average was 14% according to the “2022 Private SaaS Company Survey Results” by KeyBank Capital Markets.
It should be noted that as with all existing contracts, the new contracts include an annual automatic price re-indexation clause based on changes in price indices for the relevant country.
In an inflationary market environment, now more than ever, businesses must deploy efficient solutions to manage their Order-to-Cash process as they face a twofold challenge: to consolidate cash reserves with multiple hikes in interest rates, while generating productivity gains to address salary increases and recruitment difficulties.
This trend is expected to continue over the next 12 to 18 months with an additional increased risk of future recession in certain countries. In this disrupted context, the management of operating working capital, and particularly accounts receivable, is a major challenge for all finance departments.
Strong increase in Order-to-Cash SaaS revenue: +22%
Revenue driven by international orders, up +13%
| SIDETRADE | Q4 2022 (€m) |
Q4 2021 (€m) |
Change | 2022 (€m) |
2021 (€m) |
Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ‘Order-to-Cash’ Activities | 9.5 | 7.9 | +21% | 35.9 | 30.3 | +18% |
| of which SaaS Subscriptions | 8.1 | 6.4 | +25% | 30.1 | 24.7 | +22% |
| ‘Sales & Marketing’ Activities | 0.2 | 0.4 | -44% | 0.9 | 2.3 | -61% |
| revenue | 9.7 | 8.3 | +17% | 36.8 | 32.6 | +13% |
Sidetrade capped off 2022 with outstanding growth and a record fourth-quarter performance, reflecting a year full of successes as well as an important step taken in its development.
Q4 2022 ‘Order-to-Cash’ Activities totaled €9.5 million, up 21% on the same period in 2021 and driven by sharp growth in SaaS subscriptions (+25%) compared with Q4 2021.
On a full-year basis, ‘Order-to-Cash’ Activities for 2022 increased by 18%, thanks to strong growth in SaaS subscriptions (+22%). The increase in this recurring revenue is the result of record bookings in the 2021 fiscal year and early fiscal 2022, which continued to impact revenue growth throughout the 2022 fiscal year.
‘Order-to-Cash’ Activities, a core business within the Company’s strategy since 2019, represented 98% of total revenue in 2022.
The ‘Sales & Marketing’ Activities, which are no longer part of the Company’s strategy, now account for only 2% of total revenue in 2022, and will continue to decline, with estimated revenue of €0.5 million at end-2023. While the decline in revenue for these Activities impacted growth by 4% in 2022, it will automatically have considerably less impact in 2023.
Total revenue grew further by +13% in FY 2022, to €36.8 million. This performance is underpinned by vigorous growth in international markets which, for the first time in the Group’s history, represent 54% of total revenue, including 24% for North America.
Sidetrade’s economic model provides its business with significant resilience, as 90% of its revenue is recurring, representing a significant advantage in the current and future international environment.
All multi-year contracts are indexed to inflation (the Syntec for Southern Europe, the UK CPI for Northern Europe and the US CPI for the United States), which alters the total price of SaaS subscriptions each year by reference to changes in these price indices.
Sidetrade therefore has robust pricing power that protects the Company’s future revenue against uncertainties and inflationary pressures. At present, Sidetrade perfectly combines its sound fundamentals with a highly favorable growth outlook.
In respect of fiscal 2022, the impact of exchange rates on the Company was not material.
- Annual Revenue for 2022Tuesday 24 January 2023 after stock market closes
- Annual Results for 2022Tuesday 4 April 2023 after stock market closes
- First Quarter Revenue for 2023Wednesday 10 May 2023 after stock market closes
- Annual Shareholder general meetingThursday 15 June 2023 from 11:00am to 12:30pm (CEST)
- First Half Year Revenue for 2023Tuesday 18 July 2023 after stock market closes
- First Half Year Results for 2023Tuesday 12 September 2023 after stock market closes
- Third Quarter Revenue for 2023Tuesday 17 October 2023 after stock market closes
- Annual Revenue for 2023Tuesday 23 January 2024 after stock market closes
Sidetrade Code Academy is a free, four-week coding course with employment opportunities on offer after graduation. Now in its fourth year, this initiative was launched in Birmingham (UK) to enable anyone to kick start a technology career in West Midlands, regardless of their previous programming experience. The programme welcomes a wide variety of levels, including total beginners.
Interested participants are invited to apply to the programme by Wednesday 14th December. An assessment day will take place in Birmingham on Friday 6th January 2023, and successful applicants will start the four-week course on Monday 16th January 2023, with one in-person day a week and four days remotely.
Since its inception, Sidetrade Code Academy has empowered over 50 students to unlock their potential through coding and offered 12 full-time tech skills-based jobs at Sidetrade UK.
Emily Lamidieu, co-founder of local community group, Women in Tech Birmingham, said: One of the things we notice a lot when working in tech is the lack of diversity. Sidetrade Code Academy is a fantastic initiative for giving anyone of any background the tools they need to start building an incredibly successful career in technology.
During the four-week course, participants are coached by Sidetrade’s senior engineers, who provide a mix of fundamental and practical knowledge on top of mentorship. The programme culminates in a presentation day for trainees to showcase what they’ve learned.
Mark Sheldon, Chief Technology Officer of Sidetrade, commented: At Sidetrade, we are always looking to hire talented people, and as a CTO of a rapidly growing company, I am all too familiar with the challenges of the digital skills shortage. The tech sector is currently hindered by the misconception that programmers must have years of technical or academic training before launching their careers. Sidetrade Code Academy is proof that this isn’t the case, and I’m convinced that we will attract great talents. A career in tech is within anyone’s reach, even if they’ve never coded a day in their life and even if you were not a rock-star student! We are so proud to help people succeed in tech careers.
With Sidetrade Code Academy, the AI firm has developed a proactive and unique approach to the nation-wide coding skills gap which. The programme has seen continued growth in popularity with a 53% increase in applications each year, as well as widespread support from leaders within Birmingham’s local technology and business communities including Women in Tech Birmingham, a local community networking group.
Luke Hennerley, Principal Engineer at Sidetrade who spearheaded the idea for Sidetrade Code Academy, commented: With the Sidetrade Code Academy, we offer participants the opportunity to work on real-world projects. I think it’s important to be really grounded in the professional world from the beginning. We, enable them to apply what they’ve learned into practice, and grow in confidence in tech. Moreover, the atmosphere at the Siderade Code Academy is really positive, and gives participants early insight into what it’s like to work with the team here at Sidetrade and the tech world in general!
Learn more about Sidetrade Code Academy or apply here
Sirius Solutions is a trusted company that provides IT consultancy for efficient and effective digital change management projects in North America; a market in which Sidetrade has been rapidly expanding over the last year.
Through this technical partnership program, Sidetrade customers will be provided with change management and implementation support throughout the entire project to ensure an efficient and fast deployment of Sidetrade’s solution.
Sidetrade and Sirius Solutions bring together a combined 40+ year track record of delivering exceptional digital business transformation projects across a wide range of industries.
Bob Diana, Area Vice President of Sales for North America at Sidetrade, commented: This partnership is an exciting moment for Sidetrade as we accelerate our footing in North America and respond to the increasing demand for Sidetrade’s AI-powered Order-to-Cash solution.
The current macroeconomic challenges of high inflation, rising costs and supply chain disruption have led businesses to place an even greater emphasis on the urgent need for enhanced cash flow management.
In a technical project, change is the only constant. It’s important therefore to ensure our customers receive the highest quality expertise and technical capabilities throughout the project. We are confident that Sirius Solutions understands our customers’ business and strategic objectives and will be the perfect partner for us.
Strong track record of ensuring project success
Sirius Solutions operates in more than 30 industries and provides businesses with solutions and expertise to drive enhanced efficiencies and profitability. The consultancy has been committed to value creation and quality since their founding in 1998.
The professional services firm is made up of former senior industry executives and expert professionals, who are performance-focused and understand business challenges, complexities, nature, and timing.
Molly Pryor, Director of Transformation Solutions, Credit & Treasury at Sirius Solutions commented: We are excited to partner with Sidetrade, one of the three recognized leaders in the first-ever Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Integrated Invoice-to-Cash. Successful finance teams must operate as strategic business partners, bringing data-driven insights gleaned from advanced analytics and predictive modeling. We have entered an era post-pandemic of accelerated digital transformation where SaaS solutions will explode for the office of the CFO.
Sirius Solutions is thrilled to join Sidetrade on this journey in helping our current and future clients. As an experienced participant and early adapter of cloud OTC solutions, Sirius is pleased to partner with Sidetrade on delivering leading Order-to-Cash solutions and working together to deliver a level of excellence for our customers. We look forward to growth in the North American market with so many opportunities.
The partnership deal is Sidetrade’s first in North America and further cements the AI firm’s international expansion into the region one year since the successful launch of operations there. In Q3 2022, 41% of Sidetrade’s new bookings came from the North America region, and the SaaS provider has already been recognized as one of three Leaders in the 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Invoice to Cash applications there. As a result of this success, Sidetrade has committed to accelerating its growth plans in North America, most notably with the recent opening of its new North America business hub in Calgary.
Diana added: At Sidetrade, we uphold the highest standards in selecting our partners to ensure that our customers receive the best possible service and expertise.
This partnership forms part of Sidetrade’s North America growth plans and support our ambitions to be the world leading Order-to-Cash provider.
Olivier Novasque, CEO of Sidetrade commented:
The third quarter, which is traditionally the weakest period of the year, posted record bookings of close to €1.4 million in new ARR during Q3 2022. With a +46% increase in new bookings, this quarter is in line with our first half year 2022 performance of +42%. These business results are mainly driven by international markets, notably our successes in North America which already represents 41% of total bookings for the period. In addition to this, and for the first time in its history, Sidetrade has achieved more than half of its revenue, 53%, internationally with 23% generated in North America. The ramp-up in our North American salesforce, supported by our new business hub in Calgary (Canada), will further accelerate this momentum in the quarters ahead. Sidetrade is definitively taking an important step in its development.
Record new bookings in Q3 2022 with a +46% increase
After reporting a +42% increase for SaaS orders in the first half of 2022, Sidetrade delivered a record-high third-quarter performance, generating €1.38 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (“ARR”) in Q3 2022, compared with €0.95 million in Q3 2021; a +46% increase. The total value of these new subscription contracts over their initial contract periods (excluding renewals and services) represents €3.87 million of Total Contract Value (“TCV”) in Q3 2022 versus €2.42 million in Q3 2021; a +60% increase.
68% of total bookings were international, and 41% from North America
In Q3 2022, international orders represented more than 68% of all bookings with significant business successes in Europe, Latin America and North America.
Just over one year after the Company launched operations in North America, this market has become a major growth driver, accounting for 41% of total bookings in Q3 2022 (58% in the first half of 2022). Note that this performance surpassed the Company’s initial target of achieving more than one-third of its bookings in North America by the second half of 2022.
To these SaaS bookings should be added €0.89 million of services on an annual basis (implementation, configuration, training, recurring services, etc.), compared with €0.63 million in Q3 2021, a +41% increase. In total and considering that almost all of these services will be invoiced over the next twelve months, Q3 2022 enables Sidetrade to add the equivalent of €2.27 million in Annual Contract Value (“ACV”) compared to €1.58 million in Q3 2021, a +44% increase.
Overall, in Q3 2022, bookings by new customers (“New Business”) and Cross-selling represented 81% of the total versus 75% on average in recent quarters, with the remaining 19% of bookings accounting for Upselling of additional modules to existing customers.
Lastly, it should be noted that as with all existing contracts, the new contracts include an annual automatic price re-indexation clause based on changes in price indices for the relevant country.
In an inflationary market environment, now more than ever, businesses must deploy efficient solutions to manage their Order-to-Cash process as they face a twofold challenge: to consolidate cash reserves with multiple hikes in interest rates while generating productivity gains to address salary increases and recruitment difficulties. This trend is expected to continue over the next 12 to 24 months with an additional increased future risk of future recession in certain countries. In this disrupted context, the management of operating working capital, and particularly accounts receivable, is a major challenge for all finance departments.
Acceleration in Order-to-Cash SaaS subscription revenue by 23% and revenue by 12%, driven by international orders
| Sidetrade (€m) |
Q3 2022 | Q3 2021 | VARIATION (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ‘Order-to-Cash’ Activities | 9.1 | 7.7 | + 19% |
| of which SaaS Subscriptions | 7.7 | 6.2 | + 23% |
| ‘Sales & Marketing’ Activities | 0.2 | 0.6 | – 72% |
| Revenue | 9.2 | 8.2 | + 12% |
2022 information is from consolidated, unaudited data.
‘Order-to-Cash’ Activities grew very sharply by +19% in Q3 2022, driven by +23% growth in SaaS subscriptions. The growth in this recurring revenue is the result of record bookings in the 2021 fiscal year, which will continue to impact revenue growth throughout the 2022 fiscal year.
‘Order-to-Cash’ Activities, a core business within the Company’s strategy since 2019, now represent 98% of total revenue as of Q3 2022.
The ‘Sales & Marketing’ Activities, which have become secondary to Sidetrade’s activities, now account for only 2% of total revenue in this quarter, and will continue to decline, with estimated revenue of €0.9 million at end-2022.
Total revenue grew by +12% in Q3 2022, to €9.2 million. This performance is supported by solid growth drivers in international markets which, for the first time in the Company’s history, represent 53% of total revenue, including 23% for North America.
Sidetrade’s economic model provides its business with significant resilience, as 90% of its revenue is recurring, representing a significant advantage in the current and future environment.
All of these multi-year contracts are indexed to inflation (the Syntec for Southern Europe, the UK CPI for Northern Europe and the US CPI for the United States), which alters the total price of SaaS subscriptions each year by reference to changes in these price indices.
Sidetrade therefore has robust pricing power that protects the Company’s future revenue against uncertainties and inflationary pressures. At present, Sidetrade perfectly combines its sound fundamentals with a highly favorable growth outlook.