Thryv Holdings announced Q1 earnings late last week, and the story is similar to Q4: SaaS continues to be the growth engine as it manages planned declines in its legacy print directories business (more on that in a bit). The SaaS product includes a quickly-growing bundle of SMB digital marketing offerings.
Specifically, the SaaS portion of Thryv’s business grew 50 percent year-over-year in Q1. And an important data point from earnings is that SaaS represents 60 percent of total revenue. After crossing 100,000 SMB SaaS customers in Q4, the company is now up to 111,000 with strong momentum.
It’s also notable that Thryv achieved net revenue retention of 103 percent in Q1. This signals that it’s doing something right in not only broader strategic direction, but actually delivering valuable SMB SaaS products. Amidst all this good news, the company has to brace for broader economic uncertainty.
“No business is immune to the economic uncertainty we’re facing around the world, Thryv President Grant Freeman told Localogy Insider. “Right now, the small businesses we talk to are most concerned about achieving sustained growth in a very competitive environment. Our software helps them efficiently achieve that growth, which is why there’s been a healthy increase in the number of small businesses on our platform.”
Highlight Reel
Going deeper, we extracted top earnings takeaways and highlights for Localogy Insider readers…
- SaaS revenue was $111.1 million, a 50% increase year-over-year
- SaaS revenue excluding Keap was $92.2 million, a 24% increase year-over-year
- Marketing Services revenue was $70.2 million, a 56% decrease year-over-year
- Consolidated total revenue was $181.4 million, a decrease of 22% year-over-year
- Consolidated net loss was $9.6 million, or $(0.22) per diluted share; compared to net income of $8.4 million, or $0.22 per diluted share, for the first quarter of 2024
- Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA was $20.9 million, representing an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 11.5%
- SaaS Adjusted EBITDA was $10.8 million, representing an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 9.7%
- Total Marketing Services Adjusted EBITDA was $10.1 million, representing an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 14.4%
- Consolidated Gross Profit was $119.3 million
- Consolidated Adjusted Gross Profit was $123.7 million
- SaaS Gross Profit was $78.8 million, representing a Gross Margin of 70.9%
- SaaS Adjusted Gross Profit was $81.5 million, representing an Adjusted Gross Margin of 73.3%
- SaaS clients increased 59% year-over-year to 111 thousand at the end of the first quarter of 2025
- SaaS clients, excluding Keap, increased 37% year-over-year to 96 thousand
- Seasoned Net Revenue Retention was 103% for the first quarter of 2025, an increase of 900 bps year-over-year, excluding Keap
- SaaS monthly ARPU was $335
- Lastly, ThryvPay total payment volume was $71 million, an increase of 13% year-over-year
Thryv Acquires Keap for $80 Million to Expand Product and Market Share
Anticipate & Offset
Stepping back, Thryv’s focus is on its SMB SaaS products, as these are the growth engine of the business, as noted. It also operates print media assets, such as local directories in several markets. That sector is inherently in decline, so the name of the game is to anticipate and offset declines with SaaS.
This tightrope act is something Thryv has been able to accomplish better than any other print directory publisher in history… and many have tried. Led by visionary and proven operator Joe Walsh, Thryv has consolidated much of the directory publishing market to achieve scale and acquire customers.
Those customers are a key piece of the equation because they’re the primary target for SaaS sales efforts, which continue to accelerate. So with that broader goal in mind, Thryv is hitting all the right marks, including total SMB SaaS customers (again, 111,000) and a record net revenue retention rate.
For more on the Thryv story, which is a fascinating one, we recommend our past analysis and interviews with Walsh, as well as his appearance at L24 last year. Thryv’s evolution and all the dynamics outlined above will be the stuff of HBR case studies someday soon. We’ll keep watching closely
Header image credit: Alex Robert on Unsplash
