Cornerstone FS plc, the cloud-based provider of international payment, currency risk management and electronic account services to SMEs, provides an update on trading for the year ended 31 December 2021.

As noted in its announcement on 4 November 2021, the Group had been experiencing increased trading momentum, which has continued until the end of its financial year. As a result, and subject to audit, the Group expects to report full year revenue of approximately £2.3m (2020: £1.7m), a year-on-year increase of some 38% on 2020. This reflects a very strong second half of the financial year, with unaudited revenue approximately 75% higher than in the first six months of 2021. 

In particular, and in line with the Group’s stated strategy, revenue generated by clients that the Group serves directly has also increased significantly. A key contributor to this was the Group’s new Asia team that was brought on board in the second half of 2021. The proportion of total revenue that was accounted for by clients that the Group serves directly increased to approximately 56% compared with 12% for the previous year. As a result, and subject to audit, the Group expects to report a substantial improvement in gross margin to approximately 51.5% (2020: 29.8%).

Revenue generated through the Group’s introducer network (which is primarily white label partners, who use the Group’s technology, but also introducer brokers) accounted for approximately 44% of total revenue (2020: 88%). This would represent a reduction in indirect business, on a reported basis, due to some revenue that the Group previously generated through its introducer network now being serviced directly. However, on an underlying (unaudited) basis, there was an increase in revenue generated through the Group’s introducer network in 2021 compared with 2020.    

The Board remains confident in the Group’s prospects and looks forward to updating the market on further progress, and its full year results for the year ended 31 December 2021, in due course.