Welcome to Netcall 2025 full year results presentation. I'd now like to hand you over to James Ormondroyd, CEO, and Richard Hughes, CFO. James, over to you.
Thank you for joining us. I'm pleased to report a strong year for Netcall. Before we get into the detail, I'll start with a brief recap on who we are and the opportunity ahead. When we talk to CIOs and service leaders, one thing is really clear: everyone's under pressure to do more with less. Many still run a patchwork of legacy systems, costly to maintain and slow to adapt, and that creates a technology tax. CIOs spend 70% of budgets just keeping the lights on. At the same time, AI is reshaping how customers interact, how software is built, and how work gets done, adding urgency to modernize. But bolting AI onto complexity, you know, that won't deliver real transformation. Leaders need a platform that simplifies our workflows across the enterprise without adding cost or complexity. And that's where Netcall comes in.
Our mission is real simple: make work easier. Liberty brings automation and engagement together into one AI-powered, low-code solution, so you can build fast, use intelligence from day one, and integrate without rip and replace. Today, around 600 organizations rely on Liberty, including two-thirds of NHS acute trusts, one-third of U.K. councils, and leading names in banking, insurance, and transport. Our model is predominantly SaaS, with high recurring revenue and growing spend within our cloud base. On average, cloud customers spend 15%-20% more each year. In short, this is one unified platform, a loyal customer base, and a resilient SaaS model, well-positioned as AI reshapes enterprise software. So this year's results reflect strong momentum. Revenue up 23% year on year to GBP 48 million, including 10% organic growth. Growth came from new wins and expansions.
New logos delivered a bigger share of ACV growth than last year, while existing customers kept expanding. We're Cloud Net Retention at 118%. Alongside organic growth, we completed two acquisitions, one expanding our reach in local government automation and another to bring AI-powered document processing into Liberty. Both are integrated and already delivering cross-sell, giving customers more ways to automate. Cloud sales powered our growth. Cloud ACV rose 52% to GBP 34 million, including 27% organic growth. That's a five-fold increase over five years. And AI is gaining traction. Three-quarters of Converse CX customers adopted Liberty AI, showing AI is becoming central to our customer engagement. Cloud now makes up 80% of total ACV, and total ACV itself reached GBP 42 million, up 31%. As ACV converts, our revenue quality improves, with recurring revenue now 80% of total revenue.
Adjusted profits came in at GBP 9.8 million, up 17% year on year, with a 21% margin, which dips slightly as planned, reflecting accelerated cloud investment to launch and scale Converse CX. That program is now complete, and we can now see the early benefits with cloud contact center revenue up 34% year on year. We ended the year with GBP 27 million in cash and no debt, even after GBP 12 million of acquisition spend. With that ACV growth and a GBP 79 million order book, we have good visibility into future revenue and a strong platform for the year ahead. What matters most is how these results translate into real improvements for people. Every day, citizens across the UK use Liberty to manage hospital appointments, apply for a mortgage, or access council services.
For example, a tier one UK bank runs the mortgage journey on Liberty, all the way from application to funds release. Insurer Baloise processes over 11,000 documents a day through Liberty, with 65% of that straight through processing across customer letters, broker emails, and claim forms. Leeds Teaching Hospitals, Liberty helped improve patient engagement and clinic efficiency. They cut no-shows, reduced admin costs, saving GBP 2 million, and made appointment bookings for critical pathways 65% quicker, so patients get care sooner. Croydon Council supports over 30 citizen services on Liberty, from licensing and waste to fostering. Behind the scenes, they replace more than 100 legacy apps, and they save GBP 1.8 million annually, and their fostering app made a real difference, doubling the number of interested carers becoming foster families.
In utilities, if you want a solar panel or an EV charger connection in London, Liberty manages the quote, the approvals, and payments for UK Power Networks, and that cut approval times from 10 days to minutes. Liberty brings everything together: one platform to digitize and run processes and customer interactions. It's modular and composable, so customers can start small and scale fast. Liberty automates end-to-end workflows, mapping processes, building apps, running contact centers, and handling documents all in one place. AI is built in. It's powering conversations, understands documents and images, and drops machine learning models straight into workflows with no code. Liberty's control layer lets us move quickly, adding new capability through innovation and acquisition, so it keeps evolving.
Over the last two years, we've added process mapping and intelligent document processing into Liberty and extend our industry solutions through targeted acquisitions, highlighted with stars on the slide, so you can see where they fit within the platform. For customers, the impact's clear: streamlined operations, better customer experience, faster transformation. They have the flexibility to start where it makes sense for them, whether that's a single component or the full platform, with transparent pricing and no surprises. One of Liberty's biggest drivers is our industry accelerators, ready-made solutions with the models, workflows, and integrations that help customers realize value faster. Take Patient Hub, the solution behind Leeds Teaching Hospitals success. It powers digital appointment management for NHS hospitals, supporting around three million patients and has saved around GBP 90 million to date, and Citizen Hub, that's the solution Croydon Council used to modernize services.
It helps councils replace legacy apps, streamline process, and deliver better outcomes for citizens. As we add more accelerators for new workflows, the platform becomes more embedded within organizations, driving subscription revenue, and finally, we extend our reach for partners. Service providers build their own solutions on Liberty and sell them under their own brand, paying a per sale fee. For example, one partner built an insurtech solution, which is used by insurers like Brit and Ageas, and another developed a cost assurance app for government agencies, so that's Liberty, a platform that delivers scalable automation with intelligence and puts people at the center. Two big forces are shaping demand right now: automation and artificial intelligence. Many organizations we work with tell us the same thing: pressure to digitize workflow, how to bring AI into their operations, and improve customer service.
AI isn't about replacing people, at least not yet. It's about unlocking productivity. Gartner say 95% of service leaders plan to keep human agents and use AI alongside them because the human touch still matters for complex or sensitive cases. That's what Liberty enables: complete service experiences by orchestrating work between people and bots. Routine tasks go to AI. Exceptions or high-value decisions go to people. Another challenge is legacy tech and tool sprawl. Fragmented systems create the technology tax, and I think it's worth repeating: 70% of IT budgets just keep the lights on, and that really hurts efficiency and makes AI adoption harder. Liberty fixes that by consolidating tools and workflows on one platform. We cut costs, simplify the stack, and free up budget for transformation and it's not just IT driving this. Liberty's intuitive design means business users, not just developers, can build and adapt solutions themselves.
That reflects a wider market shift from buying point solutions to building on low-code platforms. Our customers see AI's potential, but many are cautious. You know, for them, trust and accuracy really matter, so we're focused on making Liberty AI practical and secure. By 2028, 15% of daily work decisions could be handled by AI agents. That's an awful lot of work. To meet that need, we've introduced agentic AI into Liberty for customer experience workflows, and we'll keep expanding those capabilities. As AI takes on routine work, we monetize both sides: AI-driven transactions and automation on the one hand, and tools people use to manage exceptions and high-value interactions on the other. And the market opportunity for this is large and growing fast. Liberty sits at the intersection of low-code development, process automation, and cloud contact centers, together a $49 billion market growing at 20% a year.
If the U.K. is just 5% of that, it's close to GBP 1 billion in our target sector. Today, we're in about 15% of the target accounts in our core sectors, which means a substantial white space. Combine that with supported market drivers, and we believe Liberty has a runway for growth. To capitalize on these trends, we're driving growth through four pillars: land, expand, innovate, acquire. First, land new customers. We're investing in direct sales, bringing in industry experts, and improving how we showcase customer outcomes. We've grown our partner network to more than 50, opening doors in new regions and sectors. Second, expand within our base. Customers often start with one workflow, and our job is to help them scale across the organization. That's why our success teams focus on making sure the first projects deliver, then map what's next.
It drives license growth and cross-sell, and it's why our net revenue retention is strong. Third, innovate. We reinvest around 15% of revenue back into R&D, adding AI capability, new features, ideas from our customers, and industry accelerators. And of course, that keeps Liberty evolving and gives customers more reasons to stay and grow. Finally, acquire selectively. Organic growth is our priority, but acquisitions help us to accelerate the roadmap and broaden our customer base. We look for bolt-ons with complementary tech, strong industry fit, and recurring revenue models like ours. Govtech and Parble last year are great examples of this. With our healthy cash position and cash generation, we'll continue to pursue the right opportunities. When all of these pillars work together, innovation helps us land new customers, expansion creates advocates, and acquisitions opens new paths for growth. Here's how that strategy delivered last year.
We added more than 50 new customers, a real step change. Local government was a standout. Councils are under pressure to cut costs and improve service, and many are preparing for major restructuring. Our industry solutions, backed by case studies, show how we deliver those savings and support councils through the changes ahead, and that's really resonated, and now we're winning bigger multimodal deals from day one. For example, Haringey Council signed a seven-figure deal for CX Citizen Hub, RPA, and AI, and New Forest District Council followed with a similar deal. Another driver was Spark, the process mapping tool we acquired last year. Spark's been a fantastic entry point for new customers, both direct and through partners. It helps organizations find inefficiencies and automation opportunities fast. You know, one great example is The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, a new customer this year.
In just four months, working with a partner, they mapped over 70 processes and identified ways to eliminate half of manual data entry for nursing staff. It's a big saving. Partners played a role too. We signed 60 new partners this year, and the channel contributed nearly a fifth of the new business. Converse CX and Spark were particularly attractive, helping partners deliver quick wins for clients. Through them, we won clients like Sanlam Wealth and extended our reach into South Africa and New Zealand. Our community continues to support growth. It's now over 10,000 members strong, with thousands of courses completed this year. And that creates a flywheel: more certified people, more best practices, faster outcomes, and more advocacy. Again, another reason our net retention is 118%. Our customers really are our best salespeople. And once the platform is in, expansion is powerful.
One city council that began with contact center recently signed a five-year, GBP 1.6 million deal, adding Citizen Hub, RPA, and AI to their deployment. That's nearly a four-fold uplift in annual contract value. A major bank that's been a customer for years renewed for GBP 3 million over three years and added Liberty IDP, Spark, CX, and AI to their license. And here's the real kicker: only 31% of customers with engagement modules use automation today. When they do, annual contract values typically triple. That's a huge cross-sell opportunity before we even expand into new workflow. Sustaining that momentum means continuous innovation and targeted acquisitions when they make sense. On R&D, we focus on embedding more AI across Liberty and delivering new industry solutions. In engagement, we release virtual agents and AI Assist for human agents. That's drove a 75% attach rate of Liberty AI on Converse CX deals.
As these are cloud-only features, that's also encouraging customers to move off on-premise systems. When they do that, annual spend typically rises by 50%, with 20% of ACV still tied onto on-prem support. That's another really big opportunity. We also introduced agentic AI and generative knowledge tools and expanded our accelerator packs, including solutions to maximize clinic utilization, streamline rent arrears, and make healthcare staff directories easier to manage. Today, we offer around 20 chargeable industry solutions, with more on the way. Next on the roadmap is application generation. With Spark and this new capability, users can describe a process in plain English, and Liberty generates the design specification and a starter app. It strengthens our low-code advantage, which is already up to 10 times faster than traditional coding, and that hopefully will cut build times even further. Alongside organic R&D, we completed two acquisitions: Govtech and Parble.
Govtech strengthened our position in U.K. local government. Liberty now handles council tax inquiries for around a quarter of U.K. homes, automating up to 80% of manual processing. We've already rebuilt Govtech's front end on Liberty, improving margins and creating cross-sell opportunities. Parble introduced AI-powered document processing that reduces time on paperwork workflows by up to 97%. Now integrated as Liberty IDP, it opens up new use cases for claims intake, digital mailroom, and back office automation, supporting the land and expand strategy. Financially, the acquisitions added nearly GBP 5 million revenue at strong margins, and we've already grown the acquired ACV by 17% since purchase. We stayed disciplined on deal structure with valuations around two and a half times revenue and earnings tied to growth, and of course, we continue to look for more bolt-on opportunities. I'll now hand over to Richard to take you through the financials.
Thanks, James.
FY25 delivered a strong performance in the year, with the group investing in people and products, demonstrating consistently strong customer relationships and completing two acquisitions. Total revenue was 23% higher year on year at GBP 48 million, driven by cloud service revenues, which grew 48% year on year to GBP 29.3 million. Half of that growth was organic. A 52% increase in cloud subscriptions year over year, of which 27% was organic, drove total ACV 31% higher year on year to GBP 42.2 million. The higher ACV level also drove a higher contracted order book, where contracted revenue that will be recognized in the future increased to GBP 78.9 million at the 30th of June, an increase of 24% from the prior year and providing great forward revenue visibility. EBITDA margins were in line with expectations at 20.5%. An absolute adjusted EBITDA was 17% higher year on year at GBP 9.8 million.
Fully diluted adjusted EPS was 8% higher year on year at GBP 0.037 per share. Cash conversion remained strong, with cash flow from operations of GBP 10.8 million in line with expectations and representing 110% of EBITDA, and during the period, GBP 12.5 million was paid out of cash reserves for acquisition-related items, resulting in a net cash position of GBP 27.2 million at the 30th of June. Cloud subscription revenues were over 60% of the group's revenues for the first time, delivering 61% of total revenues. That was driven by cloud ACV, which rose to GBP 33.9 million at the 30th of June, a year-on-year increase of 52%, driven by a broadly equal split of organic and M&A activities. As we acquired both Govtech and Parble during the year, but also grew existing accounts by an additional 18% on average and delivered over 50 new customer logos.
Cloud ACV is now over four and a half times the level seen at June 2020. We continue to see strong net retention rates, being the percentage of ACV retained from existing customers, including expansion, downgrades, and cancellations measured year over year, of 118% for the current year. This metric excludes ACV from acquisitions in the year. Cloud ACV from acquisitions in the year was GBP 5.5 million, meaning year-over-year organic growth was a very healthy 27%. This year's growth means that we have delivered a 38% four-year cumulative annual growth rate since FY21 in cloud subscriptions. Total ACV, including maintenance contracts, grew 31% year on year to GBP 42.2 million, or 15% year on year on an underlying basis. Higher margin cloud ACV is now 80% of total ACV, an increase of 11 percentage points from June 2024, and cloud deployments were 94% of new product bookings in the year.
Support ACV reduced in line with expectations to GBP 8.3 million as customer migrations to the cloud were only partly offset by continuing customer expansion and renewal price indexation. We continue to see significant cross-selling opportunities across our customer base, which have expanded as a result of the two acquisitions during the year. Examples of which are where we continue to sell automation solutions into engagement customers, which on average delivers over a three-times uplift in their ACV. At the end of the year, around 31% of engagement customers had also purchased some element of automation solutions, up five percentage points from the June 2024 position. If these metrics apply across all customers, this represents an annual opportunity approaching GBP 25 million.
Additionally, when we migrate our on-premise contact center customers to the cloud, we see around a 50% uplift in ACV, which represents around an annual net GBP 4 million cloud subscription opportunity. We also see significant ACV opportunities for cross-selling automation and engagement products into Spark, Govtech, and Parble customers, along with the inverse of selling acquired products into existing Netcall customers. The total contracted order book, or RPO, at the end of the year was GBP 78.9 million, a GBP 15.1 million or 24% increase on the previous year-end. 90% of this relates to cloud and support contracts. Current RPO, which is contracted revenue that is expected to be recognized in the next 12 months, is 53% of the total and grew by 30% year-on-year to GBP 41.7 million. And RPO greater than one year grew GBP 5.4 million or 17% to GBP 37.2 million.
RPO from acquisitions in the period added GBP 6.2 million to the total, of which GBP 3.9 million is to be recognized in the next 12 months. The order book now covers a significant proportion of revenues into FY26 and beyond. The strong ACV growth from cloud subscriptions continues to be the major driver of the group. And as mentioned earlier, cloud revenues represented over 60% of the GBP 48 million total revenue in the year. Total revenue growth was 23% year-over-year, and excluding the impact from acquisitions in the period and the large 2023 contract renewal, rose 11% year-over-year. Revenues of a recurring nature were 28% higher year-on-year at over GBP 41 million and now represent 86% of total revenue, an increase of four percentage points from the June 2024 position.
Within that grouping, cloud revenues continue to grow strongly following the same pattern in ACV, with revenue up by 48% year-over-year to GBP29.3 million, being a 37% cumulative annual growth rate since the FY 2021 position of GBP 8.3 million. Acquisitions during the year contributed GBP 4.6 million to cloud revenues, meaning organic growth was 24%. Support contract revenues of GBP 9.2 million again followed the non-cloud ACV pattern and delivered revenue 7% lower than the comparative period, and communication services revenue, shown within the gray section of the chart, was north GBP 0.1 million higher year-on-year at GBP 2.6 million, driven by higher fees from financial service sector customers. Non-recurring revenue from products and services, again within the gray area, was GBP 6.9 million, comprising professional services revenue, which increased 17% year-on-year to GBP 5.9 million, of which GBP 0.3 million was from acquisitions in the year.
Professional services revenues are impacted by customer demand for full application development versus support of their own development teams and can vary from period to period. And lastly, product revenue and software license sales with supporting hardware was GBP 1 million, being GBP 0.8 million lower than last year, but was in line with expectations and follows the pattern of decreasing demand for annual and perpetual licenses requiring on-premise support. In addition to ACV growth, another KPI we track closely is operating margins. Our financial strategy to date is to grow EBITDA margin sensibly over time, over the last few years targeting around a 30% flow-through of incremental revenue growth to the bottom line. EBITDA margin in the period was just over one percentage point lower year-on-year as planned, but in aggregate 17% higher on a cumulative annual growth rate basis since FY 2021.
The margin delivery in FY25 reflects the increased contribution from cloud services and productivity gains, offset by the now complete investment program into the group's cloud customer engagement offering. Reflecting these impacts, Adjusted EBITDA grew 17% year-on-year to GBP 9.8 million, of which GBP 1.3 million relates to acquisitions in the period. And after removing the impact of the group's investment program and acquisitions in the year, organic incremental EBITDA growth was over 30% and in line with our ongoing target. Our business model is largely based on annual in-advance contract billings, which, combined with the growing business, delivers excellent cash flow generation. Over the last five financial years, we have delivered over GBP 42 million of free cash flow, a conversion of around 113% of Adjusted EBITDA for the same period.
Free cash flow in the year was GBP 7 million, and in line with expectations, being a free cash flow margin of 15% of revenue. Noting the difference between the FY24 and FY25 positions, the previous year benefited from the timing of cash inflows relating to the 2022 contract win and its subsequent 2023 renewal, meaning two invoice payments were received in FY24, whereas the current period returned to the expected billing profile for that particular contract. Cash flows also reflect an 11% year-on-year growth in billings to over GBP 49 million and represent a billings-to-revenue ratio of 107%, which is below the prior year primarily due to the timing of GBP 2 million of renewal contract invoicing around the year-end. GBP 0.4 million, or 7% of higher adjusted profits in the year, have led to a 5% increase in adjusted EPS to GBP 0.0375 per share.
The different rate of increase in adjusted profits compared to EBITDA predominantly reflects lower net interest income than the prior year of GBP 0.5 million due to cash payments made for acquisitions and GBP 0.3 million of higher development cost in tangible asset amortization than FY24. In line with the company's dividend policy to pay out 25% of adjusted EPS as a final dividend, the board is proposing a final dividend this year of GBP 0.0094 for approval in the December AGM. The estimated amount payable is GBP 1.57 million. Adjusted net funds, which excludes lease liabilities and acquisition consideration as debt-like items, decreased by GBP 8.9 million to GBP 24.6 million at the year-end. The table on the left analyzes this year's movements, which predominantly relate to M&A.
It's important to note that the previous year-end cash balance of GBP 34 million has allowed us to fund the acquisitions of both Govtech and Parble during the year out of existing cash resources. The group also continues to be debt-free. And it's worth mentioning that the positive momentum in revenue and free cash flow has underpinned a substantial near GBP 20 million increase in net funds since the FY21 year-end position. I'll now hand back over to James.
Thank you, Rich. To wrap up, we're starting the new financial year from a position of strength, with automation and AI creating strong market momentum. Our all-in-one platform and resilient SaaS model, built on a high recurring revenue and strong retention, gives us clear levers for growth, supported by a substantial pipeline and a GBP 79 million order book.
We're helping customers adopt automation and AI in ways they love, and they keep coming back for more, which translates into strong, repeatable financial performance. Thank you again for your time, and we look forward to your questions.