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.