We track every SaaS company that has gone public since Q4 2017. As of now, all 58 that remain publicly traded have released their Q1 2025 earnings. Below is a summary of the key financials and metrics. You can find this data, along with historical quarterly figures, on our website at blossomstreetventures.com.
Median quarterly revenue of $192mm. Median and average revenue in Q1 was $192mm and $279mm respectively. Annualized, that’s $777mm and $1,118mm respectively. These companies are quite large and note that revenue does include services which tends to be a small line item for most SaaS companies (~10%). Also one anomaly in the data — the median has jumped materially from historical figures, but this is due to smaller companies in the data set going private and much larger ones like Waystar, ServiceTitan, and Sailpoint recently going public.
Historical medians by quarter are as follows: Q4 2024, Q3 2024, Q2 2024, Q1 2024, Q4 2023, Q3, 2023, Q2 2023, Q1 2023, Q4 2022, Q3 2022, Q2 2022, and Q1 2022 medians were $193mm, $175mm, $176mm, $167mm, $154mm, $154mm, $145mm, $133mm, $130mm, $118mm, $103mm, and $102mm respectively.
YOY growth of 15%. Median and average YOY growth was 15% and 15% respectively. Given the size of these SaaS businesses, that is good growth but it’s down materially from a high of 36% in Q1 2022, and also down from 2024’s trend.
Historical medians by quarter are as follows: Q4 2024, Q3 2024, Q2 2024, Q1 2024, Q4 2023, Q3 2023, Q2 2023, Q1 2023, Q4 2022, Q3 2022, Q2 2022, and Q1 2022 medians were 19%, 18%, 17%, 19%, 20%, 18%, 20%, 21%, 27%, 29%, 30%, and 36% respectively.
50% generate an operating profit. The median operating loss is -$12mm and average is -$20mm. Median and average margins are -9% and -15% respectively. Margins in 2024 were better and this quarter officially breaks trend.
Historical medians by quarter are as follows: Q4 2024, Q3 2024, Q2 2024, Q1 2024, Q4 2024, Q3 2023, Q2 2023, Q1 2023, Q4 2022, Q3 2022, Q2 2022, and Q1 2022 were -5%, -6%, -8%, -11%, -18%, -18%, -20%, -20%, -21%, -26%, -32% and -30% respectively.
Growing efficiently. While these companies are operating at a loss, they’re adding revenue efficiently. On median, they generate $1.31 in new revenue for every $1 of loss. With net dollar retention above 100%, the median payback period is just 0.98 years — an excellent result. If your payback on new revenue is under 1.5 years and you’re retaining customers long-term (100%+ NDR), investors will likely support burning cash to grow ARR.
Revenue to loss ratio. The median revenue to loss ratio is 7.49x. Stated differently, for every dollar of loss, the companies have $7.49 of revenue. It’s a healthy ratio given the efficient growth, strong net dollar retention, and quick payback periods of the growth.
57% reported their NDR. Of the 58 SaaS companies, 33 of them reported their net dollar retention in their quarterly filing.
Median NDR of 108%. Median net dollar retention for those companies is 108% and the average is 107%. These are very strong retention metrics in SaaS. If you’re anywhere near that, you’re doing very well. It means the current customer base is a source of growth, even after accounting for downgrades and churn. That said, retention is down materially from 2022, and seems to have broke the 2024 trend.
Historical medians by quarter are as follows: Q4 2024, Q3 2024, Q2 2024, Q1 2024, Q4 2023, Q3 2023, Q2 2023, Q1 2023, Q4 2022, Q3 2022, Q2 2022, and Q1 2022 were 108%, 110%, 112%, 112%, 111%, 112%, 115%, 115%, 115%, 123%, 125%, and 120% respectively.
Comparison to historical data. Below we this quarter’s median to historical medians we have collected. Note the drop in growth and retention over time. Also note the improvement in margin, cash efficiency, and payback period. Finally, while we show ‘Rule of 40’, we believe it’s a useless and antiquated rule (that’s another blog).
Thank you for the readership. Visit blossomstreetventures.com for more blogs and SaaS data. Email the author at sammy@blossomstreetventures.com or connect on Linkedin.