Cirata plc’s share price tanked 32% today after reporting its half-year results.
The data integration company rebranded from WANdisco following a 2023 fraud scandal and was looking to rebuild from the ground up.
Early that year, the business revealed that a senior sales employee had falsified purchase orders, triggering a suspension of trading in the company’s shares at the end of March 2023 and forcing it to raise $30m in emergency funding from existing investors.
When trading resumed in July 2023, its share price collapsed from 1,310p to around 50p on the first day back.
The company later rebranded to Cirata plc in September 2023, in a move it said was designed to draw a line under the scandal and rebuild investor confidence. Stephen Kelly, the former CEO of Sage, took over as chief executive following the departure of founder Dave Richards, while the finance and non-executive board ranks were also refreshed.
Despite positive signs in the last two years, its share price has sunk further. Even before today’s half-year results were reported, it had fallen below 12p. And by the end of the day’s trading, it was at just 7.88p – giving it a market cap of £12.85m.
This morning it reported revenue for the six months ended 30th June 2026 of just $1m, compared with $4.8m in the corresponding period a year earlier. Total bookings were just $500,000, down from $3.8m. Adjusted EBITDA loss was $5.3m (H1 FY25: $4.6m loss).
Cirata attempted to put a positive spin on the results, highlighting a cash positive start to FY26 – the first quarter delivered the company’s first-ever reported positive cash flow quarter – and a ‘pipeline growing materially in value’ during H1 FY26.
“The company also continues to expect to deliver on its previously guided annualised cost base of $12-13m, maintaining the cost discipline brought as part of the transformation programme,” it continued.
“As we advance through FY26, the company’s new sales team is continuing to mature and is growing the pipeline of opportunities, mainly from the USA, UK and ANZ geographies, which is materially larger in size and quality than at the start of the year.
“The full sales potential deliverable by this new team, however, will take a number of months to reach maturity, consistent with the ramp time for enterprise salespeople. The company’s enterprise sales cycle is inherently lumpy.
“At this point in the financial year, the company now believes that – whilst engagement with customers and channel partners around key opportunities and the Cirata Symphony product offering remains strong – certain anticipated deals may close over a longer timeframe than initially expected.
“As a result, whilst commercial momentum and pipeline build will continue to grow through H2, this may delay the company’s ambition to be cash flow breakeven, which was previously projected for FY26 overall and was subject to bookings timings and working capital movements.”
Kelly added: “It is early days for the new sales team selling complex enterprise solutions, where the expected productivity ramp is at least six months to win complicated mission critical customer selections.
“Since the period end, we have also completed an oversubscribed fundraise that gives us a strong platform to scale with discipline, and our go-to-market team is now resourced following Dominic Arcari’s final sales hire in summer 2026.
“Our focus for the remainder of FY26 is strong sales & marketing execution: seeing the productivity ramp of the stronger go-to-market team, facing our expanded pipeline, to support new customer acquisition.”