Semrush Announces Third Quarter 2024 Financial Results
Semrush Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SEMR), a leading online visibility management SaaS platform, today reported financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2024.
November 7, 2024
- Full year 2023 revenue increases over 21% year-over-year
- Achieves ARR of $337.1 million, up 23% year-over-year
- Full year net income of $1.0 million and Non-GAAP net income of $16.3 million
Semrush Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SEMR), a leading online visibility management SaaS platform, today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2023.
“In 2023, we accelerated revenue growth throughout the year, delivering ARR growth of 23%, and strong profitability. In Q4, we reported revenue growth of 21% year-over-year, increased paying customers to nearly 108,000, and our number of free, active customers surpassed one million for the first time. Looking ahead, we remain focused on our three main growth pillars: increasing new user growth, driving expansion by delivering higher value to our customers, and adding new products and monetization to our portfolio to address client needs and market trends. I want to express my sincere gratitude to our growing number of customers, talented employees, and shareholders who showed incredible support and loyalty across our business,” said Oleg Shchegolev, CEO and Co-Founder of Semrush.
Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Financial Highlights
- Fourth quarter revenue of $83.4 million, up 21% year-over-year and full year 2023 revenue of $307.7 million, up 21% year-over-year.
- Net income of $6.9 million for the fourth quarter, compared to a net loss of $13.9 million in the prior year period.
- Net income of $1.0 million for the full year 2023, compared to a net loss of $33.8 million for the full year 2022.
- Non-GAAP net income of $11.4 million for the fourth quarter, compared to a non-GAAP net loss of $11.6 million in the prior year period.
- Non-GAAP net income of $16.3 million for the full year 2023, compared to a non-GAAP net loss of $26.5 million for the full year 2022.
- Q4 free cash flow of $8.9 million, full year free cash flow of $0.3 million.
- ARR of $337.1 million as of December 31, 2023, up 23% year-over-year.
- Nearly 108,000 paying customers as of December 31, 2023, up 12.5% from a year ago.
- Dollar-based net revenue retention of 107% as of December 31, 2023, compared to 109% in the previous quarter.
See “Non-GAAP Financial Measures & Definitions of Key Metrics” below for how Semrush defines ARR, dollar-based net revenue retention, non-GAAP net income (loss), and free cash flow, and the financial tables that accompany this release for reconciliations of each non-GAAP financial measure to its closest comparable GAAP financial measure.
Fourth Quarter 2023 Business Highlights
We are committed to empowering our customers with the best-in-class platform needed to boost their online presence and gain an edge in the market. In the fourth quarter, we advanced and expanded many of our offerings:
- Continued investments in Generative AI to provide enhanced, more efficient content creation capabilities through Semrush’s platform and App Center:
- Introduced AI Chat, a generative chat system within ContentShake AI that allows customers to enter detailed prompts, request additional content, and ask questions to improve the content creation process and help businesses connect with a larger audience.
- Released the AI Ad Copy Generator app, a data-driven tool that uses billions of ad copies to draft effective copy variations, helping customers launch high-performing Google Ads campaigns.
- Announced the AI Accessibility Widget, an app that uses AI to diagnose accessibility issues in real time, enabling businesses to enhance user-friendliness and ensure website compliance.
- Added Bing to the Position Tracking tool, allowing customers to set up their tracking campaign and track daily rankings for their target keyword lists.
- We are pleased to announce our new Enterprise Platform will be Generally Available (GA) in the first half of 2024. It has been in a soft launch state since late October 2023 and is currently being used by a select number of large-scale business customers.
- Semrush customers who pay more than $10,000 annually grew by more than 30% year-over-year.
- Ended the quarter with more than 1,041,000 registered free active customers, up nearly 30% year-over-year.
Business Outlook
“During 2023, we were able to re-accelerate revenue growth, improve our profitability and generate strong free cash flow,” said Brian Mulroy, CFO of Semrush. “Looking ahead to 2024, we are confident in our ability to grow and to continue to scale our business to capitalize on the market opportunity. We remain committed to a disciplined and balanced approach to spending to improve efficiency and profitability, even while we invest in future growth opportunities that we expect will continue to create long-term, durable growth and value for our shareholders.”
Based on information as of today, March 4, 2024, we are issuing the following financial guidance:
First Quarter 2024 Financial Outlook
- For the first quarter, we expect revenue in a range of $84.7 to $85.3 million, which at the mid-point would represent growth of approximately 20% year-over-year.
- We expect first quarter Non-GAAP operating margin to be approximately 8%.
Full-Year 2024 Financial Outlook
- For the full year, we expect revenue in a range of $364 to $368 million, which at the mid-point would represent growth of approximately 19% year-over-year.
- We expect full year Non-GAAP operating margin of 10% to 11%.
- We expect full year free cash flow margin to be in the range of 7% to 8%.
Starting with our guidance for the first quarter 2024 and full year 2024, we are no longer providing guidance for non-GAAP net income, and instead will guide both non-GAAP Operating Margin and Free Cash Flow Margin. We are also updating our definitions of non-GAAP Income (Loss) from Operations to exclude Amortization of Acquired Intangible Assets, Acquisition Related Costs, Restructuring Costs and other one-time expenses outside the ordinary course of business (for example, our Exit Costs incurred primarily in 2022) in addition to the current exclusion of Stock Based Compensation. Our guidance for the first quarter 2024 and full year 2024 reflect this change. Additionally, with this release, we are also providing a reconciliation of historical non-GAAP Income (Loss) from Operations and non-GAAP operating margin under both the prior definition and the new definition for the prior periods presented. We believe these changes will allow investors to better understand our financial performance, better align with the measures used internally by management in operating our business, and permit a better evaluation of the efficacy of the methodology and information used by management to evaluate and measure our performance.
Reconciliations of non-GAAP operating margin and free cash flow margin guidance to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are not available without unreasonable efforts on a forward-looking basis due to the high variability, complexity and low visibility with respect to the charges excluded from these non-GAAP measures, in particular the measures and effects of share-based compensation expense, employer taxes and tax deductions specific to equity compensation awards that are directly impacted by future hiring, turnover and retention needs. We expect the variability of the above charges to have a significant, and potentially unpredictable, impact on our future GAAP financial results.
Conference Call Details
Semrush will host a conference call and webcast to discuss its financial results, business highlights, outlook and other matters, the details for which are provided below.Date: Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Time: 8:30 a.m. ET
Hosts: Oleg Shchegolev, CEO, Eugene Levin, President, and Brian Mulroy, CFO
Conference ID: 726760
Participant Toll Free Dial-In Number: 1 (833) 470-1428
Participant International Dial-In Number: 1 (929) 526-1599
Time: 8:30 a.m. ET
Hosts: Oleg Shchegolev, CEO, Eugene Levin, President, and Brian Mulroy, CFO
Conference ID: 726760
Participant Toll Free Dial-In Number: 1 (833) 470-1428
Participant International Dial-In Number: 1 (929) 526-1599
Registration
The live webcast of the conference call as well as the replay can be accessed for a limited time from the Semrush investor relations website at http://investors.semrush.com/.
