Pure Storage shares soar as losses narrow

Channel partners brought in 80 per cent of new customers in Q2

Pure Storage has praised its channel partners for their work in Q2, during which losses narrowed to $59.6m (£45.1m), sending its share price soaring.

For the three months to 31 July, Pure's revenue jumped a whopping 92.8 per cent to $163.2m, while net losses narrowed from $63.8m a year ago to $59.6m. Pure Storage's share price rose as high as 15 per cent to $13.5 each in after-hours trading.

Earlier this year, Pure Storage outlined plans to boost its international business after admitting the vast majority - about 79 per cent - of its business comes from North America.

On its Q2 earnings call, Pure's CFO Tim Ritters said it is making headway on its plans.

"Looking at Q2 from a geographic perspective, 75 per cent of our revenue came from the US and 25 per cent from international. International was a notable success, growing over 110 per cent year on year. This compares with a 78:22 split in the prior fiscal year."

Pure Storage has long talked up its channel model, insisting that it relies on partners to do most of its business. He said momentum in the partner business was strong in Q2.

"Pure maintained strong channel momentum in the quarter, with nearly 80 per cent of new logos being brought to Pure by our resellers," he said.

"Our top five channel partners are driving triple-digit annual growth in their Pure businesses. Also this quarter, Pure and Cisco teamed up to deliver two new partner-friendly Cisco-validated designs of converged infrastructure, combining best-of-breed service and networking from Cisco with best-of-breed storage from Pure."