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cloudBuy delivering on revenue generation promise

Published: 12:55 13 Oct 2016 BST

Amazon online
B2B customers want a marketplace that is as easy to use as a B2C system

CloudBuy (LON:BUY), the developer of online marketplaces, has built on a solid first half with some contract wins in the second half of 2016.

The firm is best known for providing e-commerce solutions, but the company's cloud-based applications are also used for company spend analysis, content management and big data.

The software firm saw revenue fall to £0.79mln in the six months ended June, down slightly from £0.89mln in the period before, but the net loss narrowed to £2.40mln from £3.16mln. 

The company saw "increasing traction" globally on its products in the first half, resulting in a strong pipeline of potential deals, which had a value of £51mln as at the end of June.

Chief financial officer David Gibbon said earlier this year: "Focus in the second half of the year is on generating revenue from existing projects on a recurring basis and on closing new deals which will have a combination of project and recurring revenue."

The company added it was confident that the results for the full year would be in line with market expectations, but with a significant second half weighting.

Its prospects were bolstered by a subscription agreement struck with USA investor Roberto Sella, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley, and his affiliates.

Sella, the managing member of LL Funds LLC, which has US$1.5bn under management, subscribed for 5mln cloudBuy  shares at 20p each, spending a total of £1 million.

He is now the beneficial owner of 10.675mln shares, or 8.3% of the share capital.

CloudBuy also noted at the time of its half-year trading update that its applications have already analysed over US$1.5 trillion of spend and are being used by leading organisations around the world.

The second half of the year has seen some stuff emerge successfully from the pipeline. In July, it landed a deal to provide staff at University of Exeter with a new platform for procurement.

Through the eight year contact the company is to provide an intuitive way for the university to manage procurement from a wide range of suppliers. It is being delivered via a partnership with EU Supply PLC (LON:EUSP).

The latest deal, with Asian bank United Overseas Bank (UOB), looks considerably more significant.

It is for five years, and will see cloudBuy’s technology powering a new online marketplace for UOB customers, providing a secure but user-friendly environment for business-to-business (B2B) transactions.

Lyn Duncan, cloudBuy’s chief executive officer, said: “The fact that cloudBuy solutions have PCI DSS Level 1 payment security accreditation, the highest level used in the payments industry, is really important to provide a trustworthy environment for buyers and sellers to come together. This is a model that will be attractive to other banks globally."

It’s that last bit that seems to have excited the market, as evidenced by the shares rising to 6.40p, up from 5.25p overnight, before they ebbed a little to 5.47p.

The group has been making a concerted effort to increase its footprint in Asia, and the company said the deal with UOB will support accelerating growth in the region.

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on 12/12/17