Crossword Cybersecurity Plc

Trading Update

28 November 2023 - London, UK -  Crossword Cybersecurity Plc (AIM:CCS, "Crossword", the "Company" or the "Group"), the cybersecurity solutions company focused on cyber strategy and risk, today announces a trading update for the year ending 31 December 2023.

Full-year guidance

In the first half of 2023, Crossword shifted its focus to establishing a clear path to profitability with its current suite of products and dedicated staff, which continues to be our direction and strategy.  In the second half of 2023, revenue growth has not been as strong as expected.  The pipeline remains strong, but conversion from pipeline to contracts has slowed down.  This means that contract opportunities expected to commence in Q4 2023 are now expected to commence in 2024. As a result, Crossword expects FY23 revenue to be in the range of £4.1m to £4.3m, as opposed to the previously guided £6m of revenue. 

Given our focus on path to profitability, costs have continued to be tightly controlled during FY23, resulting in net losses before taxation expected to be broadly in line with current market expectations.

Outlook 

The Company has previously guided to 2024 revenue of c£8m, the Company believes that revenue is more likely to be circa £7m for 2024.

The Company remains firmly committed to achieving profitability without needing to raise additional capital and remains on target to achieve EBITDA and cash breakeven on a monthly basis during H2 2024.  

- Ends -

The information contained within this announcement is deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated under the retained EU law version of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 (the "UK MAR") which is part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. The information is disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of the UK MAR. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

Contacts

Crossword Cybersecurity plc - Tel: +44 (0) 333 090 2587

Email: info@crosswordcybersecurity.com

Tom Ilube, Chief Executive Officer

Mary Dowd, Chief Financial Officer

Grant Thornton (Nominated Adviser) - Tel: +44 (0) 20 7383 5100

Colin Aaronson / Jamie Barklem / Ciara Donnelly

Hybridan LLP (Broker) - Tel: +44 (0)203 764 2341

Claire Louise Noyce

For media enquiries contact:

Duncan Gurney, GingerPR

duncan@gingerpr.co.uk - Tel: +44 (0)1932 485 300

About Crossword Cybersecurity plc

Crossword offers a range of cyber security solutions to help companies understand and reduce cyber security risk. We do this through a combination of people and technology, in the form of SaaS and software products, consulting, and managed services. Crossword's areas of emphasis are cyber security strategy and risk, supply chain cyber, threat detection and response, and digital identity and the aim is to build up a portfolio of cyber security products and services with recurring revenue models in these four areas. We work closely with UK universities and our products and services are often powered by academic research-driven insights. In the area of cybersecurity strategy and risk our consulting services include cyber maturity assessments, industry certifications, and virtual chief information security officer (vCISO) managed services.

Crossword's end-to-end supply chain cyber standard operating model (SCC SOM) is supported by our best-selling SaaS platform, Rizikon Assurance, along with cost-effective cyber audits, security testing services and complete managed services for supply chain cyber risk management. Threat detection and response services include our Nightingale AI-based network monitoring, our Trillion and Arc breached credentials tracking platforms, and incident response. Crossword's work in digital identity is based on the World Wide Web Consortium W3C verifiable credentials standard and our current solution, Identiproof, enables secure digital verification of individuals to prevent fraud.

Crossword serves medium and large clients including FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and S&P listed companies in various sectors, such as defence, insurance, investment and retail banks, private equity, education, technology and manufacturing and has offices in the UK, Poland and Oman. Crossword is traded on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.

Visit Crossword at https://www.crosswordcybersecurity.com/