Xref (ASX:XF1) proved its credentials in the second half of last year as an important platform as the global economy recovers from COVID-19. (Image: Getty).
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The company is ideally positioned to benefit from recruitment tailwinds amid the global economic recovery.
Recruitment tech platform Xref (ASX:XF1) proved its credentials in the second half of last year as an important platform as the global economy recovers from COVID-19.
That fact was reflected in the company’s half-year results today, which showed record H1 revenues of $4.7m – a gain of 37 per cent from the prior year period.
Revenues flowed through to cash receipts from sales of $6.2m, of which net operating cash outflows fell sharply to just $550,000 as the company reaps the benefits of a leaner business model.
Speaking with Stockhead about the result, Xref CEO Lee-Martin Seymour said the top-line growth was particularly pleasing in light of the generational disruption to workforces globally.
A multi-year strategic focus on essential service industries, which became crucial in the pandemic, left Xref well-placed to generate record-high usage of $2.5m for those sectors alone in the December half.
“But if you look at the global economy, non-essential services such as travel, hospitality and retail are still getting back on their feet,” Seymour said.
“So despite doing record numbers, there are a lot of global regions and sectors that are still ready to grow. In that sense, we’ve got a lot of headroom left in our client set.”
“With a global market footprint, Xref is perfectly aligned to the ongoing rebound in employment activity.”
“And like other sectors, the pandemic has forced recruitment practices to increasingly move digital – another trend which plays into the company’s strengths.”
“We’ve had record lead flow from all regions, because the world is looking at better ways to verify people and candidates,” he said.
“A good example of that is our RapidID platform. We’re seeing strong growth there in online digital verification because people have moved it to an online process, rather than in-person.”
He noted that Xref’s recruitment platform has operated as something of a leading indicator for economic growth.
The company first saw activity pick up as far back as July, and now it’s focused on accelerated growth in the year ahead.
Globally, Seymour said Xref had identified North America as a key market for growth, where it was recently named by industry review website G2.com as one of the top Australia/New Zealand sellers next to companies such as Atlassian, Xero and Canva.
The company is also generating record levels of new lead-flow through its customer on-boarding platforms – Xref Lite and Template Builder.
“The whole business is excited about 2021, and we’ve got a really good partnership between sales teams out in the market and the dev teams building out our tech on the product side,” Seymour said.
“So for us 2021 is about green shoots — we survived 2020 and we’re going to thrive in 2021 as we move towards that break-even point by the middle of the year.”
This article was developed in collaboration with Xref, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
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