TORONTO, Nov. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BlueRush Inc. (“BlueRush” or the “Company”) (TSXV: BTV), an emerging Software as a Service (“SaaS”) company providing personalized customer engagement solutions for leading financial services companies, today announced its financial results for its fiscal year ended July 31, 2018 (“Fiscal 2018”).
“2018 was an important year for BlueRush, as we advanced our strategic transition towards a SaaS based business model, while also maintaining solid services revenue,” said Steve Taylor, CEO of BlueRush. “We signed several new clients including Carte Wealth Management, Meridian Credit Union and AFP Habitat, while strengthening our established relationships with TD, CIBC, Manulife and the Co-Operators Insurance. In addition, we enhanced our market reach through strategic partnerships with Microsoft, Kunder and One Touch Video Chat. Subsequent to year-end, we also partnered with Valeyo, a leading provider of insurance and delivery solutions, to bring our SaaS products to more credit unions.”
“BlueRush is uniquely positioned to exploit the rapidly growing online video segment,” added Mr. Taylor. “According to eMarketer, the U.S. video advertising market will grow into a US$22 billion industry by 2021. The vast majority of our opportunities with IndiVideo are greenfield, which suggests we are at the front-end of this market opportunity. Looking ahead, we view Fiscal 2019 as a watershed period for the Company, as we expect our financial results to begin reflecting the growth of our recurring revenue, SaaS-based business.”
Fiscal 2018 Financial Highlights
- SaaS revenue grew 1% to $1.0 million compared to Fiscal 2017 and Services revenue declined 11% to $2.0 million, reflecting the Company’s strategy to shift to a recurring-revenue, SaaS based model
- SaaS gross profit increased 40% to $0.6 million, compared to Fiscal 2017, while gross profit for the services business declined 8.2% to $0.9 million, compared to Fiscal 2017
- Gross margins in the SaaS business increased from 44% in Fiscal 2017 to 61% in Fiscal 2018
- Overall gross profit increased 7.7% to $1.5 million, despite reduced emphasis and revenue in the Services business
Growth in BlueRush’s SaaS business – The Company experienced 1% revenue growth and increasing momentum in the recurring revenue component of its business, which has been the key focus of management’s efforts and investment over the past year. In Fiscal 2019, BlueRush expects to see material growth in revenue and gross profit from this business.
DigitalReach™ and IndiVideo™ are now driving higher gross margins – The year-over-year improvement in SaaS gross margins from 44% in Fiscal 2017 to 61% in Fiscal 2018 is a direct result of BlueRush’s research and development investment, along with optimizing the Company’s structure by moving to the Microsoft Azure platform. DigitalReach and IndiVideo are now deployed on a cost-efficient and multi-tenant environment.
Measurable results are now driving follow-on business with customers and partners – IndiVideo, in particular, has demonstrated the ability to drive compelling and measurable results for customers. These programs are leading to additional opportunities and have become compelling use cases in the Company’s sales process. The video market as a whole is one of the fastest growing segments of online media, while personalized video is being adopted by some of the biggest companies in North America.
BlueRush continued to invest in its products to strengthen its competitive position – The Company advanced the development of features and major enhancements for its SaaS based products for IndiVideo and DigitalReach to further increase their marketability to major financial institutions worldwide. Both products are gaining traction in the marketplace and are seeing a growing pipeline.
Partners are providing BlueRush with a global footprint – BlueRush has achieved co-sell status with Microsoft, which provides the Company with significant sales and marketing leverage on a global scale. BlueRush strongly believes that Microsoft has the most robust partner program of any cloud-based provider, as well as the most scalable and secure cloud infrastructure.
BlueRush’s audited financial statements for Fiscal 2018 and accompanying Management's Discussion & Analysis have been filed on SEDAR and are available at www.sedar.com and the Company’s website at www.bluerush.com.
About BlueRush and IndiVideo
BlueRush is uniquely positioned within the online video market. Video is the fastest growing online content segment, with leading analysts predicting that more than 80% of content will be consumed as video by 2021. BlueRush develops and markets a disruptive interactive and personalized video platform called IndiVideo™. IndiVideo utilizes proprietary technology that allows for two unique advantages over competitors’ personalized video technologies: (1) lower cost to mass-scale personalized videos; and (2) ability to deploy behind any corporate firewall for increased security. These advantages are critical because they allow marketing departments to control their distribution costs, and because deploying behind the firewall provides increased security as well as greater connectivity to client data.
BlueRush has a particular focus on delivering measurable value to the Financial Services vertical in areas such as mortgage, loan and credit card origination, as well as supporting Pension Fund and Insurance use cases. IndiVideo is integrated with BlueRush’s SaaS-based content engagement platform, DigitalReach™, which delivers improved sales conversion metrics for more than 75,000 financial advisors in leading financial institutions. The combination of IndiVideo and DigitalReach is unique in the marketplace and provides BlueRush with a differentiated value proposition. For more information, please visit www.bluerush.com. More information on the BlueRush SaaS products can be viewed for DigitalReach at www.digitalreach.ca and for IndiVideo at www.individeo.com.
| For further information please contact: | |
| Steve Taylor, CEO | Dave Badun, CFO |
| Tel: 416-457-9391 | Tel: 416-624-8382 |
| steve.taylor@bluerush.com | dave.badun@bluerush.com |
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this press release constitute "forward-looking information" as such term is defined in applicable Canadian securities legislation. The words "may", "would", "could", "should", "potential", "will", "seek", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" and similar expressions as they relate to the Company, including the Company’s financial results reflecting the growth of its recurring revenue in 2019 and the Company seeing material growth in revenue and gross profit in 2019, are intended to identify forward-looking information. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking information. Such statements reflect the Company's current views and intentions with respect to future events, and current information available to the Company, and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Material factors or assumptions were applied in providing forward-looking information, including personalized video being further adopted by companies and the Company increasing sales for its SaaS based products. Many factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward looking information to vary from those described herein should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize. These factors include, without limitation: changes in law; the ability to implement business strategies and pursue business opportunities; state of the capital markets; the availability of funds and resources to pursue operations; a novel business model; dependence on key suppliers and local partners; competition; the outcome and cost of any litigation; as well as general economic, market and business conditions, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in disclosure documents filed by the Company with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com. Should any factor affect the Company in an unexpected manner, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, the actual results or events may differ materially from the results or events predicted. Any such forward-looking information is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Moreover, the Company does not assume responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such forward-looking information. The forward -looking information included in this press release is made as of the date of this press release and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable law. The Company’s results and forward-looking information and calculations may be affected by fluctuations in exchange rates.
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