Box revenues near $400m as cloud storage demands grow

71,000 paying customers help drive revenues, but no sign of profits just yet

Box has announced revenues of $398.6m for its most recent fiscal year, an increase of 32 per cent on its previous financial year, as demand for its cloud storage and content services continues to grow.

Despite the increase in revenues the firm still posted a loss of $150m, although this was an improvement on the $210m it lost in fiscal 2016. Notably, Box also posted its first free cash flow quarter in Q4 at $10m, a notable milestone for any youngish company.

Investors will have noted this with mild optimism, as well as that the fact billings rose by 23 per cent to $454m in fiscal 2017, as it demonstrates that more firms are willing to pay for access to its cloud storage platform and the tools it offers to work with, and share, this data.

Indeed Box said it now has a paying customer base of over 71,000 firms, including high-profile brands such as Volkswagen Group of America, Discovery Communications, and Spotify.

Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box was upbeat on the results and said it demonstrated the firm's focus was paying off and if it continues will see it reach the milestone $1bn revenue target.

"Box is raising the bar in cloud content management. We've consistently delivered innovative new products, set the standard for security and compliance, and helped customers in every industry move to the cloud with confidence," he said.

"We are driving towards a $1 billion long-term revenue target, and this year we plan to invest for scale while continuing to drive operating leverage."

Levie also took to Twitter to tout the fact the company became free-cash-flow positive in its fourth quarter and that revenue for its next fiscal year is guided to pass $500m.

However, despite this upbeat tone from the company, the market was not so impressed, with shares falling in after-hours trading, with some speculating this was because the forecasts for fiscal 2018 were not as high as had been expected.