Chief financial officer Jacqui Cartin said the business continues to invest in artificial intelligence
Sage offices at Cobalt Business Park in North Tyneside(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
First quarter revenue has jumped 10% at accounting and payroll software giant Sage.
New first quarter results for the Tyneside tech firm show its North American business led the way with a 12% organic rise in revenue to £304m in the three months to the end of September, thanks to sales from Sage Intacct and continued growth in Sage 200 and Sage 50. Meanwhile, its UK, Ireland, Africa and APAC territories saw a 10% organic rise to £194m with growth of Sage Intacct and sales of its small business solutions, and Europe brought a 7% rise to £176m.
Together, it meant the Cobalt Business Park plc grew total revenue by 10% to £647m. Most of that growth came from the firm’s Sage Business Cloud suite of cloud-based accounting, payroll, and business management software. That saw 14% organic growth to £574m.
Sage said the progress was driven by balanced growth from new and existing customers, including cloud native revenue growth of 24% to £253m, up from £205m in the same period the previous year. Recurring revenue grew by 10% to £655m as software subscription revenue was raised 12% to £568m, resulting in a subscription penetration of 84%, versus 83% in the first quarter of 2025.
Jacqui Cartin, chief financial officer, said: “Sage delivered a strong start to FY26, with Q1 organic revenue growth accelerating to 10%, supported by the continued execution of our growth strategy. We are investing in innovation across our AI-powered platform, helping small and mid-sized businesses solve their day-to-day challenges and work more productively.
“We reiterate our full-year guidance, as set out in our FY25 results announcement, and remain focused on driving efficient, sustainable growth and long-term value for all stakeholders.”
The Q1 performance for Sage follows a strong 2025 year in which it saw a 17% rise in operating profit to £530m. The business has became increasingly focused on using artificial intelligence (AI) to develop new products and also to support its own, internal work.
When announcing the full year results in November, Sage bosses said they were continuing to scale up the firm’s generative AI assistant, Copilot, which is already available to around 150,000 customers. The technology is designed to help customers save time on regular, manual tasks. Engineers on Tyneside have played a key part in developing Copilot with forthcoming AI agents from Sage said to be in the works.
Sage CEO Steve Hare has said the firm’s AI tools are helping small and medium-sized business to tackle productivity challenges and reduce the scourge of late payments.
