I thought I’d start a thread about Upsales, which released its Q4 report today.
Upsales delivered growth in both revenue and recurring revenue during the fourth quarter. Revenue rose by 10.8% to 40.3 MSEK, and annual recurring revenue (ARR) increased by 5.3 MSEK, reaching 153 MSEK at the end of the quarter. This represents an ARR increase of 7.8% on a rolling twelve-month basis.
The EBITDA margin amounted to 25.7% for the quarter, compared to 15.1% for the same period last year. The improvement was due to efficiency measures within the organization.
Furthermore, the company announced that churn (cancellations) has continued to decrease, and both new customer sales and revenue expansion among existing customers have developed well. Looking ahead, the company expects conditions for continued growth to be good, and that revenue growth will increase during 2026.
Upsales has a long history of profitable growth, and more than 95% of the company’s revenue consists of recurring subscription revenue (ARR), which provides stability and predictability in the company’s turnover and financial position. Recurring revenue is valuable, but growth has slowed down in recent years.
The market for CRM systems is evolving and facing major shifts enabled by AI and other new technologies. With the help of AI features, CRM systems can create even greater business value for organizations through better analysis, forecasting, and decision support, which drives demand. While this presents an opportunity, it can also involve risks in terms of increased competition, where existing market players will need to invest in product development to remain competitive.
I’m quite skeptical about whether AI is useful in CRM systems. All players in the industry certainly try to emphasize this in their marketing, but the results remain rather meager. In my view, it’s about what problem is being addressed and with what data? For example, in prospecting tools, I think these AI applications have been practically useless so far. Often, they even do more harm than good when companies try to fix things with AI that aren’t broken.