Bulb has reported significant growth in members and revenue, but also its financial loss, as the supplier backs its brand of “sustainable growth” to continue into 2019.
In an email to members today, Bulb co-founders Hayden Wood and Amit Gudka revealed that it now has more than 870,000 customers following an intensive period of growth which makes it one of, if not the fastest growing supplier in the UK.
That growth has ultimately had an impact on the firm’s top line. From the period covering April 2017 until March 2018, Bulb revenue soared from £10 million the year before to £183 million, sending gross profit rising from £1.1 million to £12.1 million.
However over the course of the same period its losses grew more than ten-fold, from £2.1 million to £23.7 million, which Bulb squared at the cost of growing its member base and developing new technology.
However the supplier will also have witnessed its supplier obligations increase too, particularly relating to ECO and the Warm Home Discount.
Wood and Gudka said that the firm was only prepared to grow “sustainably”, adding that the £60 million investment it received from DST Global and Magnetar in the middle of the year was recognition of the “solid, responsible business” the duo had built.
They too suggested how the investment would be used to pursue further growth in the year ahead.
Wood has previously said the firm wants to bolt on another million members over the course of 2019, but today the company pointed towards how investment in technology had made its ‘energy specialists’ some four-times more productive now than they were in the previous year.
Bulb also launched a smart tariff beta programme which the company said had reduced some household bills by as much as 33% by shifting their demand away from peak times.
