Buffett-backed Snowflake's loss widens in first quarterly report post IPO

LONDON: Warren Buffett-backed data warehouse firm Snowflake Inc reported a bigger third-quarter loss on Wednesday, in its first quarterly results following a blockbuster market debut in September, sending its shares more than 5 per cent lower after the bell.

The San Mateo, California-based company, which has 3,554 customers, raised US$3.36 billion in its initial public offering after it was priced above the target range in the biggest US listing so far this year.

Snowflake said product revenue, or sales from services on its platform, more than doubled to US$148.5 million, accounting for 93 per cent of total revenue in the quarter.

Founded in 2012 in San Francisco, Snowflake sells a cloud data platform which offers to consolidate a business' data onto one platform. Cloud-based business services have seen rapid growth this year as offices around the world adapted to working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Net loss for the quarter ended Oct 31 widened to US$168.9 million from US$88.1 million a year earlier, the company said.

Total revenue for the quarter more than doubled to US$159.6 million. Analysts on average had expected revenue of US$147.5 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.