As it promised, Montréal-based Lightspeed Commerce surpassed $1 billion USD in annual revenue for the first time during fiscal 2025, which concluded on March 31.
However, while Lightspeed largely met expectations and improved its financial profile in its latest earnings report, it also posted a net loss of nearly $576 million in fiscal Q4 as the firm’s weak share price triggered a big goodwill writedown and it shared a conservative outlook for fiscal 2026 amid continued global economic uncertainty. As of publication time, Lightspeed’s stock has fallen approximately seven percent since markets opened.
When Lightspeed founder Dax Dasilva joined The BetaKit Podcast in June 2024 shortly after taking the reins back as CEO, he vowed fiscal 2025 would be the year the point-of-sale and commerce technology company became “a profitability story” and exceeded $1 billion in annual revenue.
“We put a lot of pieces in place for the transformation.”
Dax Dasilva,
Lightspeed
Since then, Lightspeed has conducted a strategic review, made additional layoffs, and refocused on its two strongest markets—North American retailers and European hospitality providers—as part of a refreshed transformation plan focused on striking the right balance between revenue growth and profitability to win back public market investors.
In an interview with BetaKit, Dasilva said that year one was about reviewing Lightspeed’s operations and designing a go-forward strategy. “I think we did some of the low-hanging fruit and had a focus on operational efficiency for [fiscal 2025] … we put a lot of pieces in place for the transformation.”
Lightspeed ultimately generated nearly $1.08 billion in sales on the back of 18 percent year-over-year growth in fiscal 2025, coming in slightly below the 20 percent growth Lightspeed forecast in fiscal Q3. The over $253 million in revenue Lightspeed pulled in during fiscal Q4, up 10 percent relative to the same period in fiscal 2024, was in line with analyst expectations and helped it cross the 10-digit mark.
But Lightspeed’s net loss in fiscal 2025 soared to more than $667 million compared to $164 million in 2024. The company attributed this jump largely to a goodwill impairment charge during fiscal Q4. On Lightspeed’s earnings call, CFO Asha Bakshani noted that given recent volatility in tech company valuations and Lightspeed’s weak share price, the company’s net assets exceeded its market capitalization as of March 31.
Bakshani emphasized that this charge is a non-cash accounting entry that has no impact on Lightspeed’s liquidity or capability to execute on its strategy, noting that the firm closed the year with nearly $559 million in cash. “Our balance sheet remains healthy and positions us well for this upcoming year of profitable growth,” she added.
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In recent months, Lightspeed and other Canadian tech stocks have plunged and then surged again in response to tariff developments in the trade war with the United States.
Lightspeed did, however, manage to post a significant increase in its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) over the last year. Lightspeed grew its adjusted EBITDA, a measure of profitability that the firm has been focusing on, to almost $54 million in fiscal 2025. This was up from just over $1 million the prior year, beating Lightspeed’s previous outlook of more than $53 million.
Bakshani attributed this to both the company’s revenue growth and restructuring efforts during this period; Dasilva referred to it as “step one in terms of being a profitable growth story.” He noted that Lightspeed hopes to demonstrate location growth while improving its gross profit and adjusted EBITDA on a quarterly basis in fiscal 2026.
Following a strategic review, in February, Lightspeed announced intentions to remain public and execute “a full transformation plan,” including a $400-million share buyback that is now halfway complete. Dasilva, who indicated that profitable growth remains the firm’s top priority, unpacked the decision in an interview with BetaKit at the time, and shared more details on Lightspeed’s strategy in March.
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The firm’s stock, listed on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange, currently trades about 90 percent below its COVID-19 pandemic high in September 2021. It dropped precipitously amid the broader tech downturn, a fall fuelled partly by an October 2021 short-seller report critical of some of Lightspeed’s metrics.
Last year was a busy one for Lightspeed. Dasilva returned as CEO, and the company shed staff while refocusing on its two strongest markets. It explored strategic options, including a potential sale, before ultimately deciding to stay the course as a public company.
“With many of the hard decisions behind us, fiscal 2026 will be a year of executing on our plan and delivering on our potential,” Dasilva said on the earnings call.
Dasilva told BetaKit that Lightspeed is now about halfway towards its goal of hiring over 150 outbound sales workers. He said March was a company record in this respect, and that he expects to see greater benefits over time. Lightspeed also plans to invest 35 percent more in product development to support its growth efforts in target markets.
Lightspeed has not been immune to global macroeconomic uncertainty. The company even went so far as to scale back its fiscal 2025 revenue outlook in March. “When you have economic uncertainty and it hurts consumer confidence, there’s things you can control and things you can’t control,” Dasilva said, noting that amid these conditions, some people have begun shopping and eating out less often.
Dasilva said that the company has so far seen “the most softness” in North American hospitality, alongside some lesser signs of weakness in North American retail and European hospitality, but claimed that these trends began to stabilize in April and May.
“While it’s too early to call a rebound, we’re really not seeing further deterioration either,” Bakshani said during the earnings call.
“Lightspeed has stopped chasing headline [revenue] growth.”
Dax Dasilva,
Lightspeed
Dasilva noted that Lightspeed’s guidance for fiscal 2026 is conservative in light of ongoing headwinds, as the firm has forecast total revenue growth of 10 to 12 percent year-over-year with a total adjusted EBITDA of between $68 million and $72 million. “We have built conservatism into the [fiscal 2026] guide,” he said.
Dasilva said “Lightspeed has stopped chasing headline [revenue] growth” going forward. Today, the firm’s business consists of a mix of “low-calorie” payments and higher-margin software revenue. After spending the past few years convincing clients to adopt its payments solution and achieving 40 percent penetration, Dasilva said “most of that work is done.”
Over the next three years, Dasilva said Lightspeed plans to more heavily pursue software revenue growth, and achieve this by expanding the number of locations it serves.
“The topline revenue number is important, but if you really want to know if we’re making progress on our transformation [and ]what Lightspeed is being valued on from our multiple, it’s really the gross profit number, the adjusted EBITDA and eventually, the free cash flow number,” Dasilva said.
Feature image courtesy Elevate.