Sidetrade AI Sales & Marketing
To make the most of CRM, businesses must first ensure that customer data is as accurate and as extensive as possible. This is a recurrent challenge, and it is daunting for most companies. Not only does Sidetrade supply highly enriched firmographic data but, most importantly, Aimie collects and analyzes over 50 billion business signals from corporate websites and social networks, giving Salesforce users custom information and insights they can count on to get results.
Aimie can gain a deep understanding of how existing customers behave. She targets the best leads among millions of potential customer companies, and recommends an enhanced way of reaching them directly through Salesforce.
Comments on the News
Every step of the way – transforming leads, increasing customer spend, and increasing retention rate– Marketing & Sales directors can now harness the amazing power of Sidetrade’s AI on AppExchange”, explains Jean-Cyril Schütterlé, Chief Product Officer at Sidetrade. “With Sidetrade, sales and marketing teams can act immediately to seize previously unseen opportunities. Sidetrade AI on AppExchange is an invaluable decision-making tool, supporting staff with crucial information such as business development opportunities, and which customers are statistically at risk of leaving you. With predictive analyses at your fingertips, you can deal with issues before they arise and accelerate revenue growth.”
Sidetrade AI Sales & Marketing is a welcome addition to AppExchange, as they power digital transformation for customers with AI-driven business insights,” said Woodson Martin, GM of Salesforce AppExchange. “AppExchange is constantly evolving to enable our partners to build cutting-edge solutions to drive customer success”.
One of David’s first responsibilities at Sidetrade will be to build a global marketing team focused on world-class demand generation and product marketing to support the company’s international growth. Commenting on his appointment, David Turner says:
I’ve joined Sidetrade at a really exciting time, with our reputation well established as a leader in leveraging AI to transform the order-to-cash process of major enterprises worldwide. Now Sidetrade is embarking on the next stage of growth, with our sights set on new markets, and generating business value for our current and future clients and their customers. I’ll be building a world-class marketing operation to drive our global success.”
At Oracle Netsuite, David headed up marketing and demand generation in EMEA. He took his team from four to 30 strong, setting up new operations across 11 countries. His achievements include supporting the sales team to increase annual revenue significantly through both direct and indirect channels. “It’s an achievement I’m very proud of”, he says. David acted as the key spokesperson, turning technological capabilities and product functionality into compelling business solutions. He hopes the experience will prove useful when it comes to explaining the value of AI in an easy-to-understand way for business leaders.
David also brings entrepreneurial experience, having conceived and helped to develop FinancialForce, a cloud software start-up, while at Coda and Unit4 NV, as well as running a number of businesses outside of the tech industry.
The experience of taking a business from idea to reality is something I find fascinating and rewarding, and it feeds into my thinking and leadership today”, says David.
Revenue up 16%, like for like
| SIDETRADE (MILLION EUROS) |
FIRST NINE MONTHS 2019 | FIRST NINE MONTHS 2018 | VARIATION |
|---|---|---|---|
| SALES & MARKETING AI | 3.2 | 2.7 | + 17% |
| FINANCIALS AI | 15.8 | 13.6 | + 16% |
| AI REVENUE LIKE-FOR-LIKE SALES |
19 | 16.4 | + 16% |
| AI REVENUE LIKE-FOR-LIKE SALES |
– | 1.8 | – |
| REVENUE | 19 | 18.2 | +4% |
2019 data is consolidated and unaudited.
At the end of the first nine months of fiscal year 2019, Sidetrade continues to show double-digit growth (+16% against last year) with revenue of €19m. Let us recall that B2C Services have been withdrawn from revenue figures. This non-core business was phased out, as announced in late 2018.
The nine months of growth have been driven by Sidetrade’s AI Sales & Marketing (+17%) and AI Financials (+16%).
Double-digit growth is expected for the entire 2019 financial year.
With an annual income of €4 bn per year, Manpower France collects 1.3 million receivables from 80,000 companies. To handle this volume, and increasingly complex payment procedures, Manpower’s Finance department started using Sidetrade technology in 2013. Sidetrade accelerates automation of the order-to-cash process, and models collection strategies for different segments of clientele. As a result, Manpower France improved their efficiency with a significant reduction in days sales outstanding.
Despite this excellent performance, considering the complexity of the purchasing process, and exponential growth in data, Sidetrade decided to enrich their platform with Artificial Intelligence technology.
Our solution, like all automation software, was based on a set of predetermined scenarios, which needed to be regularly revised by business experts. On top of this, Sidetrade added Artificial Intelligence, which exploits the profusion of data available on customer payment behavior, to provide financial teams with the best possible recommendations in real time, explains Jean-Cyril Schütterlé, Chief Product Officer at Sidetrade.
As a player in the evolution of the world of work, Manpower already uses AI in its interactions with its candidates and clients to support them in constantly changing environments. Manpower France’s Finance department was therefore an ideal candidate to test drive Sidetrade’s new AI platform, named Aimie.
Aimie, AI to adapt to individual customer behavior in real time
Aimie had been trained on 230,000,000 B2B payment experiences, totaling sales of over 700 billion euros [£621 bn] over the past three years. Based on this unique knowledge, Aimie analyzes each Manpower customer account to determine the best collection strategy, according to a multitude of criteria, such as buyer and seller profiles, characteristics of the invoice, and business relations history, including any disputes.
“Aimie analyzes what has worked before, directly executes automatic follow-up actions, and establishes which past-dues to target first. She considers available resources in order to take optimal actions. We started Aimie off with two customer portfolios for a period of two months. Encouraged by the results, we ramped up our use of Aimie. Within four months, Aimie was managing nearly 60% of single-site customers, which represents over 5,000 accounts, and nearly 10,000 follow-up actions per month”, says Laurent Bueno, Credit Director of Manpower France. “With over 700 payer centers to manage, it is impossible for a manager to call all the debtors in their portfolio. Aimie helps them decide which customers to contact first.” After nine months of testing, the results are clear: with support from Aimie, effectiveness of recovery actions grew 12%.
“Aimie allows our teams to focus on higher-added-value tasks. We dismiss any alarmist talk about Artificial Intelligence. We actually see AI as a way to let us focus on real human know-how”, concludes Laurent Bueno.
Olivier Novasque, CEO of Sidetrade, had this to say about its 2019 H1 results:
“In the emerging market of Artificial Intelligence for B2B, Sidetrade continues to establish itself quarter after quarter as a key player, reporting double-digit growth. The financial results for the first six months is the corollary of an ambitious policy of substantial investment. We will reinforce this policy over the coming quarters to accelerate our development.”
Revenue up 15%, like for like
| SIDETRADE GROUP (MILLION EUROS) |
2019 H1 | 2018 H1 | VARIATION (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| SALES & MARKETING AI | 2.1 | 1.7 | + 24% |
| FINANCIALS AI | 10.5 | 9.2 | + 14% |
| AI REVENUE LIKE-FOR-LIKE SALES |
12.6 | 10.9 | + 15% |
| B2C SERVICES | – | 1.3 | – |
| REVENUE | 12.6 | 12.2 | +3 % |
| OPERATING PROFIT | 0.7 | 1.2 | – 43% |
| NET PROFIT | 0.5 | 1.1 | – 51% |
2019 data is consolidated and unaudited. 2018 H1 revenue included B2C business.
In the first half of 2019, Sidetrade generated revenue of €12.6m, which represents organic growth of 15% like for like. Let us recall that B2C services are no longer included in Sidetrade’s revenue, as the phaseout of this business line was announced in late 2018.
Net profit at €0.5m (- 51%)
The group’s operating profit for the first half was €0.7m, a decline of 43% compared to the same period in FY 2018. It was severely impacted by the substantial investment undertaken regarding French and English sales resources (+€1.8m).
The operating profit included a €1.0m research tax credit (vs €0.8m in 2018 H1) as well as an activation of R&D costs to the amount of €0.15m (vs €0.1m in 2018 H1).
The net profit was €0.55m, a decrease of 51% including a one-off loss (- €0.1m) and an income tax expense (€0.01m).
Solid financial health
The Sidetrade group is in solid financial health with a treasury of €5.7 million as at 30 June 2019, and virtually no debt (€0.4 million).
For the record, the group also holds 83,000 of its own shares at an estimated value of €5.5 million as at 30 June 2019.
Olivier Novasque, CEO of Sidetrade, had this to say about 2019 H1 achievements:
“Our R&D work paid off, allowing us to inject Artificial Intelligence (AI) into our Financials offering and make great progress with this business line in the first six months of the year. As for our Sales & Marketing AI offering, this market is still in its infancy but we have every confidence that this line is really going to take off. Sidetrade is making an international name for itself as an up and coming leader in AI for the entire B2B customer engagement.”
| SIDETRADE (MILLION EUROS) |
2019 H1 |
2018 H1 |
VARIATION |
|---|---|---|---|
| SALES & MARKETING AI | 2.1 | 1.7 | + 24% |
| FINANCIALS AI | 10.5 | 9.2 | + 14% |
| AI REVENUE LIKE-FOR-LIKE SALES |
12.6 | 10.9 | + 15% |
| AI REVENUE LIKE-FOR-LIKE SALES |
– | 1.3 | – |
| REVENUE | 12.6 | 12.2 | +3% |
2019 data is consolidated and unaudited. 2018 H1 revenue included B2C business, which has since been phased out.
In the first half of 2019, Sidetrade generated revenue of €12.6m, which represents organic growth of 15%, like for like. Let us recall that B2C services are no longer included in Sidetrade’s revenue, as the phaseout of this business line was announced in late 2018.
Sidetrade’s business focuses primarily on large corporate customers, who account for 91% of total sales. Medium and small businesses, the main market for our Sales & Marketing AI line, represent 9% of sales.
Review of our H1 business
Intensive sales work in the first six months of the year enabled us to attract 23 key accounts (vs. 36 in 2018), consolidating our geographic position:
- France: Groupe BPCE, Solocal Group, Edenred, Point Fort Fichet, Cham (EDF group), Colissimo (French postal service), AB Tasty, Europcar Mobility Group, Saint-Gobain ADFORS, Chubb France
- UK: Euro Car Parts, GFK Europe, Frank Recruitment Group, Customade Group, Rexel UK, Chubb UK
- Benelux: ENGIE Fabricom
- US: Saverglass, Hearst Magazines, Videojet Technologies Inc., Inchcape, Equiniti Services
- Latin America : Sodexo Chili
In total, our new customers represent annual recurring revenue of €2.8m in subscription fees (vs. €2.6m for all of FY 2018), including €2.5m for large accounts (vs. €2m in FY 2018). It is interesting to note that 37% of this revenue will come from new international customers.
This future revenue will be mainly from our Financials AI business, which amounts to €2.3m (vs. €1m in FY 2018). The slowdown in our Sales & Marketing AI business is expected to generate €0.6m (vs. €1.6m in FY 2018).
In the first half of 2019, our new large accounts committed to initial periods of 39 months, on average.
Large account attrition remains under control, with a rate of 4.8% at the end of June 2019, vs. 5% at the end of 2018.
Sidetrade’s growth is supported by continued investment in Sales and Marketing, totaling €4.6m in 2019 H1 (vs. €6.6m in all of FY 2018).
Sidetrade management has every reason to believe that growth will continue throughout FY 2019.
Accelerated growth: Revenue up 14%, like for like
| SIDETRADE (MILLION EUROS) |
2019 Q1 | 2018 Q1 | VARIATION (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI SALES & MARKETING | 1.0 | 0.8 | + 24% |
| AI FINANCIALS | 5.0 | 4.5 | + 11% |
| AI REVENUE LIKE-FOR-LIKE SALES |
6.0 | 5.3 | + 14% |
| B2C SERVICES | – | 0.6 | – |
| REVENUE | 6.0 | 5.9 | + 2% |
In the first quarter of 2019, Sidetrade revenue reached €6M, amounting to organic growth of 14%, like for like against Q1 2018. Let us recall that B2C Services have been withdrawn from revenue figures. This non-core business has been phased out, as announced in late 2018
Accelerated growth (14% 2019 Q1 vs +11% for all of 2018) comes from an amazing 24% leap in AI Sales & Marketing, as well as a double-digit jump (11%) in AI Financials.
Sidetrade AI a big success in Europe and the U.S.
The past months have seen fantastic commercial success in Europe and the U.S. This achievement shows Sidetrade’s ability to attract new customers with an indisputable technological lead in Artificial Intelligence technology. Marketing, Sales and Finance teams are turning to AI as a strategic tool to enhance the effectiveness of their teams throughout the customer lifecycle.
Sidetrade has been working with a range of top-tier customers: BPCE, ENGIE Cofely, Colissimo, Euro Car Parts, Hearst Magazines, France Air, France Télévisions Publicité, GfK, Inchcape, Saint-Gobain ADFORS, and Solocal. Sidetrade’s work with Sodexo (catering, facilities management, and other services) has been extended throughout Europe.
Statutory auditor’s report on the consolidated financial statements
- Another year of double-digit growth, with revenue up 11% for 2018
- Huge success of Sales & Marketing AI solution take-off (up 46%)
- Operating profit above expectations (up 10%) − ahead of acquisition integration plan
- Growth likely to accelerate in 2019
Olivier Novasque, founder and CEO of Sidetrade, had this to say:
“2018 was a real turning point in Sidetrade’s history and a major milestone in its development. In less than eighteen months, we finalized the integration of our three acquisitions. We smoothly merged all our departments, eliminating any potential losses. This convergence, backed by major investments, allowed us to launch a unique, comprehensive AI solution for the Sales & Marketing teams of large companies. Already an enormous success in a wide range of industries, the Sidetrade Sales & Marketing AI solution generated revenue of nearly €4M (up 46%) and 50% of new customers in 2018.
Our drive to innovate paid off with a huge introduction of new technologies in our core Financials AI business, which now has a considerable lead on the market. The impact of this will be seen in 2019 income. Double-digit growth in revenue and a solid rise in operating profit attest to the success of our acquisition plan, especially considering how quickly it was carried out.
Sidetrade has what it takes to lead the way in AI for the entire B2B customer cycle. More than ever, we are geared up to capture this thriving market and significantly accelerate growth in 2019. »
Another year of double-digit growth: Revenue up 11%, Operating profit up 9%
| SIDETRADE GROUP (MILLION EUROS) |
2018 | 2017 | VARIATION (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| REVENUE | 24,1 | 21,6 | + 11% |
| OF WHICH SALES & MARKETING AI |
3,8 | 2,6 | + 46% |
| AI FINANCIALS | 20,3 | 19,0 | + 7% |
| OPERATING PROFIT | 2,3 | 2,1 | +10% |
| NET PROFIT | 2,2 | 2,0 | +9% |
The 2018 consolidated accounts have been reviewed by our statutory auditors. Their certification report will be issued after finalization of the procedures required for the Annual Report.
Huge success of Sales & Marketing AI solution take-off (up 46%)
2018: fourth consecutive year of double-digit growth in revenue.
Sidetrade confirms the commercial success of their Sales & Marketing AI business, which leapt to €3.8M, up 46%. This performance shows just how effective the solution is and validates Sidetrade’s strategic choice to extend their AI offering to the entire customer cycle. Sidetrade also reinforced their core Financials AI business; which rose 7% to €20.3M, considering a higher base effect.
2018 also saw the phase-out of B2C services (outsourcing of recovery from consumers), no longer considered strategic in Sidetrade’s new positioning, now focused on AI dedicated to B2B customer relations. Run from the shared services center in Dublin, this business represented revenue of €2M in 2018. Its phase-out in Q4 of 2018 was anticipated in terms of resources, and its impact on margin in the next fiscal year should be negligible.
Operating profit above expectations (up 10%) − ahead of acquisition integration plan
Operating profit reached €2.3M in 2018, up 10% against the previous year (€2.1M). This very nice performance can be explained by a €2.8M increase in gross margin, reaching €18.1M, i.e. 75% of income. SaaS subscriptions now contribute 90% of this gross margin (vs 86% in 2017) confirming the incremental profitability of Sidetrade’s pure SaaS model.
2018 was also spent integrating three newly acquired start-ups and eliminating their losses (€1.3M). At the same time, Sidetrade boldly merged the different businesses into a single sales force marketing both Sidetrade AI services: Sales & Marketing and Financials. This dramatically boosted productivity.
Sidetrade also launched an investment program with an additional €2.8M for R&D resources to finalize the convergence of the three acquired technologies and additional Sales & Marketing resources to handle the new business.
Operating profit included a €1.8M research tax credit (vs €1.5M in 2017) as well as activation of marginal R&D costs (€0.2M -identical to 2017).
Income tax payable is estimated at – € 0.05M in 2018, vs €0.05 M€ in 2017.
Net profit was €2.2M up 9%.
A solid financial structure
Sidetrade maintains a solid financial structure with gross treasury of €5.5M and financial debt kept down to €0.4M. Sidetrade holds 76,000 of its own shares for a value of €3.8M on 31 December 2018.
Growth likely to accelerate in 2019
The paradigm change initiated by Sidetrade in late 2016, with the acquisition of three AI start-ups, enabled the company to expand its services to the entire customer value cycle. The convergence of three different AI technologies, along with an ambitious investment plan, enabled the company in just 18 months to provide a first-of-its-kind service that has been extremely well received by the market since 2018.
Let us recall that in 2013, Sidetrade laid the foundations for true innovation by creating one of the very first data Science Lab in France. The lab now employs over a dozen scientists, split between France and the UK, developing algorithms by analyzing the 230 million B2B transactions in Sidetrade’s cloud (through the Financials AI business), combined with millions of unstructured public records collected from multiple sources (e.g. company registries as Companies House, semantic analyses of corporate websites, weak signals from social networks).
Today, Sidetrade’s unique Artificial Intelligence platform called Aimie is one of the most advanced technologies on the B2B market. Aimie provides predictive analytics for the entire customer life cycle and makes practical recommendations to thousands of operational staff every day. Aimie identifies the best leads, detects upsell and cross-sell opportunities, and preempts customer churn. At a time when “customer experience” drives business, Aimie’s immediately actionable recommendations are precious for accelerating growth.
In 2019, Sidetrade will be following through with the R&D work started in 2018, massively integrating new Artificial Intelligence technology into their core AI Financials business. The aim is to radically accelerate the order-to-cash cycle using Machine Learning, Deep Learning and Natural Language Processing at the heart of every component. Results from the Sidetrade Data Science Lab have been very encouraging. For example, follow-up actions have been shown to be 51% more effective when they follow Aimie’s recommendations (65% vs 43% success rate for getting payment within five days). Team productivity also increased by around 53%. A pilot study is now under way under real conditions with Sidetrade customers. Initial results are very promising. Now that human labor is considered a costly resource to be used sparingly, a solution that augments human capacity is more than welcome.
With exciting technological breakthroughs, a unique approach encompassing the entire customer journey, and ambitious investments in Sales & Marketing resources, Sidetrade is ideally positioned to seize the opportunity of the booming B2B AI market. Like for like (excluding B2C), Management is looking forward to even better growth in fiscal year 2019.
ALTO Invest is an independent management company that makes private equity investments. ALTO Invest has just boosted their stake in Sidetrade, the artificial intelligence innovator, to 5.04%, by acquiring Sidetrade shares on the market.
“Sidetrade is one of the few pioneering listed companies in the word of SaaS software editors. The quality of their management, together with their strategic positioning in B2B customer relations, convinced us to invest in them. Sidetrade’s development of new AI-based business solutions shows their determination to break new ground. They are trailblazers in their field”, said Franck Halley, Managing Director of ALTO Invest.
ALTO Invest is a specialized asset management firm which invests in privately-owned and publicly-listed SMEs seeking to grow through innovation. In 2011, ALTO Invest became a Sidetrade shareholder and has since supported and guided Sidetrade’s international development.
Sidetrade is one of today’s market leaders in B2B Artificial Intelligence solutions. Sidetrade provides a unique intelligent assistant to accelerate business growth, especially for Marketing, Sales and Finance teams.
Olivier Novasque, Founder and CEO of Sidetrade, commented:
“I wish to thank ALTO Invest, one of our longstanding shareholders, for their trust. Artificial Intelligence is on its way to becoming a crucial asset for top-performing businesses. We have given ourselves the resources to move fast and take a considerable lead in the market. »