Xero grows revenue 83% to $70m with over $200m of cash for further growth

FSN writes: Xero has again significantly grown revenue and customer numbers in its 2014 financial having recently passed 300,000 paying customers.  Xero's operating revenue was $70.lm for the year ended 31 March 2014, up 83% from last year's $38.4m result. On a constant currency basis Xero grew operating revenue by 92% in the period. Customer numbers increased to 284,000 at 31 March 2014, up from 157,000 at 31 March 2013. As anticipated, the full year loss grew to $35.5m.

Xero has $210m of cash to fund its growth strategy and commences its 2015 financial year strongly with $93m in annualised subscriptions (representing an 81% increase on the $51.5m reported at the same time last year).

Recruiting senior management for growth and filling out global teams was a key focus for the 2014 financial year as Xero added a further 376 employees.

With strong growth expected to continue in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom, Xero turns its focus on the important US market. The US market entry phase was completed successfully, allowing Xero to raise an additional $180m of capital in October 2013, bolster the Board with appointments of New York-based Chris Liddell as Chairman and San Francisco-based Director Bill Veghte, and appoint Peter Karpas as CEO North America.

Xero has also made progress on a number of large-scale partnerships, and has recently announced integration with Square, Inc. in the US and a strategic alliance with H&R Block.

Xero sees itself well placed as the adoption of cloud software accelerates for small business and expects strong growth to continue for the foreseeable future.