blur Group is a technology company reinventing how businesses do commerce at blurgroup.com. Its Global Services Exchange delivers services differently: a new way to buy, manage and pay for core services. As of July 2013, more than 30,000 businesses in 141 countries have adopted this s-commerce platform and changed the way they work. 100 projects per month from companies like Broadridge, Coral, Exceed, HCA, Momentive, Red Commerce, the Financial Times, Berlitz, Butlins, GE Healthcare and Tyco are received. Over the same time, average brief value has grown from around US$1,500 in 2010 to US$10,800 in the first quarter of 2013. By mid-2013, more than 2,200 projects had been submitted with a combined value of over US$35 million. These have come from the US, UK, Europe, Africa and Asia with over 28,000 expert service providers on eight exchanges responding to them


http://blurgroup.com/

UPDATE - blur Group cementing global leadership position
By John Harrington September 24 2013, 12:49pm Cumulative projects submitted as of 19 September total 2,675 with a combined value of over US$48mlnCumulative projects submitted as of 19 September total 2,675 with a combined value of over US$48mln

---ADDS CHIEF EXECUTIVE AND BROKER COMMENTS---

Brokers are revising their revenue forecasts upwards after services-commerce firm blur Group (LON:BLUR) said its latest metrics indicate accelerated growth in the use of the business exchange.

The fast-growing crowd-sourcing firm set the bar high in the first half of 2013, with revenue leaping by 250% to US$3.41mln from US$975,000 in the corresponding period of 2012, and the company is already running well ahead of the US$2.81mln in revenue achieved in the whole of 2012.

Gross profit jumped 131% to US$790,000 from US$730,000 the year before, while the underlying loss (LBITDA) widened to US$1.56mln from US$454,000, reflecting increased investment in the corporate sales function, marketing spend and platform infrastructure in the first half of the year.

That investment appears to be paying off, with the group reporting accelerated growth in the use of the business exchange in the third quarter.

The cash balance at the end of June stood at US$13.12mln, up from US$797,994 a year earlier, after the group’s successful fund raising in June.

“The acceleration in adoption and the evolution in the profile of the companies and experts who use the Global Services Exchange, provide clear evidence that s-commerce has completed the transition from concept to a proven way of buying and delivering business services,” said chief executive officer, Philip Letts.

“blur can now fully capitalise on its first mover advantage in this market, widely estimated to be worth in excess of US$2 trillion. Our plans are to focus on the continued ‘industrialisation’ of the Exchange, providing the scalability required for the global uptake of s-commerce. Funded by the overwhelming support in our June fundraise, this will include the accelerated growth of regional sales; an increased focus on global customer acquisition through digital channels; and a strong emphasis on R&D to deliver even greater platform functionality for all users of the Exchange and continued growth in our key metrics,” he added.

City broker Liberum reiterated its ‘buy’ rating on the stock and raised its revenue forecasts for the current year and the next by 4% and 12% respectively, following the accelerating in top line growth in the third quarter.

“However, to capitalise on its first mover advantage in the emerging s-commerce market, blur is adding headcount faster than expected which leads to a US$1mln reduction to our FY’13E EBITDA forecast. No major change to FY’14E EBITDA. blur’s s-commerce platform is moving from concept towards mass adoption,” Liberum said.

Speaking to Proactive Investors about the investment, Letts said the trick is to “invest at the right point of the curve”.

“What we’ve been working on since the secondary financing was completed in June was, first of all, to accelerate a few investments [to promote growth] and Q3 has played out, in terms of getting the return,” Letts said.

“So, we’ve seen the number of projects accelerate again over Q2. We’ve seen the total project values click up a whole other gear on Q2, which I think surprised everyone, because Q2 was quite a transformative quarter over Q1, and we’ve also seen the average project value track really nicely.”

The general consensus among brokers is that the company will move into profit in 2015 at the EBITDA (underlying earnings) level, and that view has not been changed by the interim results.

The pick-up in sales growth has caused some excitement, however, as the group cements its lead in a global services market that has been estimated by Gartner, the research firm, as a US$2,000bn a year market.

Letts’s aim is to build on its first mover advantage in the s-commerce space, a market he thinks could be as big as the e-commerce arena.

With no debt and a pile of money in the bank, the company is in a good position to press on with an already impressive customer acquisition programme. A lot of blur’s marketing is done for it by ‘word of mouth’ but even the paid-for stuff is done on a very cost-effective basis.

“We use all digital channels, the kind of channels e-commerce companies have been using for many years.

“Our cost of acquisition for a B2B [business-to-business] tech platform is almost unprecedented; it’s very low,” Letts revealed.

“We have nearly 35,000 businesses on the exchange, and we’re adding nearly 1,200 businesses on a monthly basis. For any B2B tech platform, that’s extremely fast.

“There’s a groundswell acceptance [in the s-commerce sector] that doing it online might be better,” Letts concluded.

Looking very good :-))


Shares today - The challenge now is how to value Blur. That’s always difficult for this kind of hyper-growth business, where revenues are forecast to jump roughly 10-fold by 2016 to close on $100 million. Of the three analysts from whom I’ve seen comment today, none has published a target price, even on a discounted cashflow (DCF) analysis. They will, in time. Perhaps a day or two from now I’d suspect, but for the moment, it appears that even hard-nosed City number crunchers have been tripped up by just how fast Blur’s future is clearing.

all very well talking this share up on turnover increases but what about some bottom line projections?

24 Sep Shore Capital N/A Buy
24 Sep Liberum Capital N/A Buy
24 Sep N+1 Singer N/A Corporate

dc no answer?

Halifax, How can bottom line be shown when the company is not expected to move into profit until 2015 (due to large set up costs , that I might say are going to reward huge)

Halifax I suggest you do a bit more homework on this company. The city not just analysts are over the moon. The company has to build like any company has too.
The size of the market (huge} that Blur is chasing and the speed it is picking up contracts is all helping to drive the sp. The sp is very much like WANdisco the market knows fully if all goes well what the company will achieve. If you feel its to risky for you I would advise you to not invest. My investment nearly up 100% in a few weeks I cannot complain.

Halifax no answer ?

dc if the company is being managed properly they should have projections for bottom line not just revenue growth, so give us the full picture.

halifax ... if it's going up buy it , if it's going down short it.

Hope this helps.

DC thanks for your informative postings!

Halifax stop the wind up, and look up the info .
Give Blur's accountants a call. lol

dc so you don't know?

I know all I need to know, thanks. You go and find out what you do not know.

dc keep ramping on the basis of no overall knowledge.

What ever you say.

No I have no knowledge in nothing everyone can see that, lost miillions.

ah hit a nerve becoming abusive like so many of your colleagues when they are found out!

where's skin with his ramp?

Have you purchased any yet halifax ?