Darktrace lowers FY revenue forecasts as customers spurn trials

UK cybersecurity company Darktrace lowered annual revenue forecasts as potential customers balked at trialling the company’s products amid the tougher macro-economic environment.

The company on Wednesday said it now expected its constant currency annual recurring revenue to increase by 29-31.5% in the year to June 30, down from a previous forecast of 31-34%.

“Clearly… the current macro-economic environment is creating challenges to winning new customers, with prospects more reluctant to run product trials and, in regions with historically higher conversion rates, those rates starting to decline,” said chief executive Cathy Graham.

The company added that foreign exchange headwinds present early in the financial year had largely reversed, allowing it to moderate the reduction in revenue expectations.

Based on this partial offset to lower ARR growth expectations for full-year 2023, Darktrace is now expecting year-over-year revenue growth of between 29.5-31% from a previous 30-33%.

Darktrace also said it had appointed Denise Walter as chief revenue officer who was vice-president of sales at US firm VMware.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com