Family Zone Cyber Safety experiences strong growth in education sales in US and Australia
Family Zone has signed a quarterly record of $1.8 million in total contract value with education customers.
Technology company Family Zone Cyber Safety (ASX: FZO) has posted its latest performance metrics for the back end of last year which indicate the company has grown the number of clients by 19% and student licences by 17%.
Most striking was the company’s growth in annual contract values, up 300% to $1.8 million over the same December quarter last year.
The results are particularly significant because Family Zone was able to overcome the seasonal lull in sales around the festive holidays for education technology in the US and report strong growth across all markets in which it’s active.
Family Zone also noted the positive influence of its new product Insights, allowing it to distinguish between accounts including premium access filters and policy enforcement tools and accounts which can access reporting only.
In November last year, Family Zone launched Telkomsel Safe, a re-branded Family Zone Insights offering.
Within a couple of months, 7,200 accounts were activated via Telkomsel with initial engagement indicators described as “exceptional” with greater than 60% activation of downloaded apps and negligible churn to date, according to Family Zone.
Family Zone said it intends to launch Insights throughout its US school district clients later this year.
Raising performance to close out the year
The fourth quarter of each year is seasonally the most active sales period in both Australia and New Zealand, while being relatively sluggish in the US.
Given the seasonal drop-off in sales at the end of the year, Family Zone said its quarterly result is therefore even more impressive because it was able to buck the trend.
In a statement to the market, Family Zone confirmed it had added a record 183 new school clients and 88,000 student licences in the fourth quarter of 2019 with net growth reported in every market, namely Australia, New Zealand and the US.
Moreover, subscriptions to the company’s premium parent control accounts grew from 159,000 in September 2019 to 187,000 in December.
According to Family Zone, the biggest driver of premium account growth was its education channel, contributing nearly 20,000 new accounts and reflecting the re-direction of marketing and sales efforts into schools.
The direct channel added 800 premium consumer accounts in the quarter and wholesale added 7,600.
Importantly for the coming year, Family Zone said that given its shifting focus to the new Insights product, it expects a temporary drop in premium accounts from its wholesale channel in the coming quarters.
Broad progress
Family Zone converted in excess of 80% of so-called proof of concept (POC) trials in US school districts, which means that with more than 80 POCs currently running, Family Zone’s global footprint now exceeds 1,250 schools and 650,000 students.
In terms of new contracts, Family Zone said it has achieved a record $1.8 million in new contract signings which reflects the “increasing contribution from US education”, the company said.
Furthermore, Family Zone reported that it had achieved 300% in growth in the annual value of contracts signed in the quarter.
“With a strong and proven US sales team in place, the company is confident of delivering exceptional sales growth in coming quarters as market momentum builds through to the key September sales quarter,” Family Zone said.
This morning’s market update helped Family Zone shares to add almost 9% and trading at $0.185.