Edge cloud platform provider Fastly Inc. reported record quarterly revenue in its fiscal first quarter of 2023, driven by strong customer growth.

For the quarter that ended March 31, Fastly reported a loss before costs such as stock compensation of $14 million, or nine cents per share, down from a loss of $17.74 million, or 15 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2022. Revenue rose 15% from a year ago, to $117.6 million, a new record for Fastly.

Both figures were beats, with analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research having expected an earnings per share loss of 10 cents per share on revenue of $116.2 million.

More customers equal more revenue, and Fastly saw its total customer count hit 3,100 in the first quarter, up 38 from the fourth quarter of 2022. Enterprise customers grew to 540, up seven from the previous quarter.

Although the headline figures were positive, Fastly did see some of its key stats decline. The company’s trailing-12-month net retention rate eased to 116% in the first quarter from 119% in the previous quarter, while its dollar-based net expansion rate was 121%, down from 123%. In perspective, though, neither of those numbers is bad, since most companies would be happy with either of those figures.

In another record for the company, Fastly’s streaming bandwidth reached 81.9 terabits per second during a successful Super Bowl livestream, supported by its automated traffic routing systems AutoPilot and Precision Path.

Fastly introduced a new partner program in the quarter, featuring a new tiered model with simplified pricing and packaging. Alongside the release, Fastly also launched a new managed security service to protect enterprises from rising web application attacks.

“We are pleased with the revenue and operating performance of the first quarter, exceeding the top end of our guidance range,” Chief Executive Todd Nightingale said in the company’s earnings release. “As we continue to gain customer mind share with these efforts, we will be focused on accelerating market share gains as well.”

For its outlook, Fastly predicts an adjusted loss of nine to 11 cents per share in its second quarter on revenue of $117 million to $120 million. For the full year 2023, the company expects an adjusted loss of 21 to 27 cents per share on revenue of $495 million to $505 million.

Investors liked the figures, with Fastly shares up over 2% in late trading.

Photo: Fastly