On January 30, business software firm Sage Group maintained its revenue forecast for fiscal 2025 following a 10% growth in first-quarter underlying revenue, mainly fueled by increased demand, particularly in North America, its fastest-growing region.
The company's recent focus on cloud services has been substantial, with future dependence on the rising interest in artificial intelligence (AI) products and services. Sage aims to implement generative AI in its offerings to aid small business owners.
Jonathan Howell, Chief Financial Officer, expressed, "Sage has made a strong start to the year, achieving broad-based revenue growth as expected, despite prevailing macroeconomic uncertainty."
In December, Sage introduced its "Sage Copilot" generative AI-powered assistant, designed to assist businesses in tracking tasks and automating some operations.
Although the release of a free AI assistant by Chinese startup DeepSeek, boasting cost efficiency and minimal data usage, led to a global tech stock sell-off this week, Sage's FTSE 100 component shares have increased by 5% this year.
Sage had initially projected organic total revenue growth of 9% or higher for the fiscal year ending in September. This surpasses analysts' estimated growth rate of 9.2%.
For the three months ending December 31, the company recorded underlying total revenue of 612 million pounds ($760.84 million), with North America exhibiting an 11% growth rate.