Significant gains in profitability growth fueled by AI-enabled transformation from customers across APAC and US
Appier delivered the following results for second quarter of fiscal year of 2021:
- Revenue growth up 50% YoY to a historical high of 2.8 billion JPY
- Gross profit increased 77% YoY
- Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) growth up to a historical high of 10.8 billion JPY, up 38% YoY
- Significant profitability improvement with EBITDA up 24 percentage point comparing with same period of last year and hit historical high
- Approached EBITDA break even for the whole quarter (-1%)
- June delivered first-time ever operating profit on a monthly basis since 2013 when Appier invested for growth
- Operating income improved by 22 percentage points YoY
- Upward revision of full year forecast from 10.9 billion JPY to 11.7 billion JPY with 7% of increase
- Gained new customers with an increase of 29.4% YoY and 7.5% QoQ, which is the highest quarterly organic increase
TAIWAN – 5 August 2021 – Appier Group Inc (TSE: 4180), henceforth referred to as Appier, today announced its Q2 earnings results for its second quarter ended 30 June 2021, which saw strong growth in revenue and profit as its customer base expanded and deepened across Asia-Pacific and the US. Appier’s gross profit increased 77% year-on-year (YoY), with revenue up 50% to hit a historical high of 2.8 billion JPY. Annual recurring revenue (ARR) hit a historical high of 10.8 billion JPY, up 38% YoY.
Appier completed its listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on March 30, 2021 and turned a monthly operating profit in June for the first time since 2013 when they started to invest for growth. Appier’s gross margin climbed from 42% to 50% YoY, while its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) margin rose 24 percentage points from -25% to -1% YoY. Existing customers and new customer acceleration were instrumental for this upward trend as the LTM NRR (last twelve months net revenue retention rate) shot up to historical high of 120.2% in Q2.
“We attribute our substantial growth this quarter to our ability to help our customers capitalize on opportunities in the new digital economy as the global pandemic continues to accelerate digital growth across Asia. Our customers are recognising the benefits brought about by elevating their business performance with artificial intelligence (AI) technologies,” said Dr. Chih-Han Yu, Appier’s CEO and co-founder.
“Many companies are still at the start of their AI-powered digitization and we help them make sense of the entire customer journey, from prospecting and acquisition to retention using AI-informed analytics. The post-pandemic digital-first environment is only going to become more complex but technology allows business leaders to cut through that complexity and make informed decisions. Appier is well-positioned to help customers continue their AI-enabled digitization as demonstrated by this quarter’s strong results.”
Enterprise demand for sharper insights fuels growth
Increased customer demand for services that support transformation efforts has driven Appier’s strong results, with customer growth at 29.4% YoY. The ecommerce sector continues to see accelerated growth in the face of the global pandemic. Geographically, Appier posted revenue gains in each region across Asia-Pacific with more than 40% increase. In the US, Appier is witnessing a steady growth trajectory as revenue grew 100% QoQ, having established its presence only a year ago.
Appier witnessed strong customer growth at 29.4% YoY and 7.5% QoQ with the highest organic increase in number of customers. The need for businesses to elevate their marketing performance and improve customer satisfaction in a digital-first environment, which is especially dynamic in Asia Pacific, gave Appier a boost this quarter. The AI-native SaaS company is uniquely positioned to help enterprises tackle the customer journey from end to end with the aid of machine-learning and advanced analytics.
Conversational marketing play seen as key strategic move
Appier made its debut into the conversational commerce and marketing space in June, following the acquisition of BotBonnie, an omnichannel chatbot platform announced in May. Conversational commerce is a global phenomenon that will continue to accelerate as total spend over conversational commerce channels will reach $290 billion by 2025 globally (rising from $41 billion in 2021). This is a 590% increase over the next four years.
With the addition of BotBonnie to Appier’s suite of AI solutions, customers can now add conversational marketing to their commerce and stay on top of the ever-evolving customer expectations underpinned by the need for instantaneous service, answers and information. Gartner expects that by 2023, 40% of enterprise applications will have conversational AI embedded in their functionality, up from a current 5%.
Market-driven innovation continues to play a big part in Appier’s product strategy as witnessed in the number of product updates during Q2. These include the addition of a predictive actions feature to AIQUA, which helps businesses deliver personalized messages to their customers; the launch of Creative Studio, which enables easy, coding-free online store creation and website tailoring; and the acquisition of BotBonnie in May, an omnichannel chatbot platform, which it is combining with its own solutions such as AIDEAL, a tool to predict purchase intent and motivate hesitant buyers. Appier’s AI-native products support customer engagement and acquisition, deliver customer insights and drive purchase.
With its uniquely Asia-first approach in the competitive SaaS industry, Appier sees large enterprises and small businesses competing on an increasingly level playing field where customers are won and lost based on quality of service, and customer experience.
About Appier
Appier is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that uses artificial intelligence to power business decision-making. Founded in 2012 with a vision of democratizing AI, Appier now has 17 offices across APAC, Europe and U.S., and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
