Lightspeed Commerce Inc. reported a fourth-quarter loss of US$114.5 million compared with a loss of $42 million in the same quarter last year.

The point-of-sale technology company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, says the loss amounted to 77 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended March 31 compared with a loss of 34 cents per diluted share a year earlier.

“The majority of our merchants are in the physical world … COVID is finally behind us and the return to physical – everybody dining and shopping in the real world again – has been very strong for Lightspeed,” said JP Chauvet, chief executive officer of Lightspeed, in an interview with BNN Bloomberg Thursday. 

“That generates a lot of demand for platforms like ours.”

Revenue for the fourth quarter of its 2022 financial year totalled US$146.6 million, up from US$82.4 million a year ago.

“The company has been improving year after year. We went from 18 per cent to 10 per cent [losses]. This year, we're forecasting five per cent losses. And for us, profitability is next fiscal year,” said Chauvet.

On an adjusted basis, Lightspeed says it lost 15 cents per diluted share in the quarter compared with a loss of 10 cents per diluted share in the same quarter last year.

In its outlook for its 2023 financial year, Lightspeed says it expects revenue of US$740 million to US$760 million.

Revenue for the first quarter of its 2023 financial year is expected to be between US$165 million and US$170 million.

“I can tell you that on what we can control we're feeling really good about,” he said.

-- With files from BNN Bloomberg’s Daniel Johnson