Xero has just given a market update in advance of heir partner conference next week. The numbers are all heading in the right direction despite the fact that Xero is yet to break even – previous market announcements indicated that Xero was following a strategy that put market growth ahead of targeting short-term break even.
Specifics of todays announcement include;
- Xero expects its operating revenue for the full year ended 31 March 2012 to double 2011 revenue of $9.3m.
- Committed Monthly Revenue (CMR) is now $1.75m or $21m annualized
- 50% of CMR is from offshore markets
- Paying customers using the Xero business software worldwide exceeds 60,000
- There are 240,000 user accounts
- There are over 3,300 accounting firms now using Xero. The accountant and bookkeepers channel model, proven in New Zealand, is showing similar early signs of success in offshore markets
- The company now employs 170 staff across four countries. The US sales office has been established with six staff in San Francisco
All in all the announcements indicate that Xero is cracking its sales methodology and managing to keep the business scaling. It’s heartening to see such strong non-New Zealand sales figures and it will be even more interesting to see how their US market entry affects that particular metric.
Ben Kepes is an analyst, an entrepreneur, a commentator and a business adviser. His business interests include a diverse range of industries from manufacturing to property to technology. As a technology commentator he has a broad presence both in the traditional media and extensively online. Ben covers the convergance of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users. 
I havent kept up to date with the specifics but every year that goes by and the major competitors fail to come up with anything, is another sign that Xero is just going to keep onwards and upwards!
So pleased I bought shares. just need to find another like that