Plotting the path for business resilience
2020 triggered off fundamental strategic and operational transformation at Bamboo Group. Due to the pandemic, the company had to rapidly adapt to the clients’ changing needs and discover new ways to offer additional value for their overall sustainability. We strengthened the work relationships between team members within project teams for reaching greater performance and continuous delivery. We kept delivering products and services the customers needed most reaching beneficial conditions for our stakeholders along the way. Apart from that, our service units offered a mixed business model for existing and potential clients, which allowed responding to their requirements with much higher predictability in financial and operational planning.
We diversified and massively extended our reach, increased the number of clients and customers globally, as well as the number of new countries on board. As of today, Bamboo Group has reinforced its global presence by gaining new partnerships with corporates from Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, and Canada. The company has been continually expanding its services in the UAE, Kuwait, the UK, and the US. In 2020, we recorded 15% YoY revenue growth from sales in the African region, where Bamboo Group had been mobilizing its value-added services for 10 years.
We cultivated thought leadership in the industry by actively participating in forums and summits and sharing our ideas with industry researchers and professionals from DevQuarterly, Goodfirms, and Tivi. The portfolio companies of Bamboo Group made the lists for top web developers and application developers in Estonia (The Manifest, Clutch), being featured for Shopify (Top Developers), Fintech and Enterprise (DesignRush), and Healthcare (SuperbCompanies) solutions development. At the end of the year, an Edtech project of Bamboo Group was featured as one of the top 100 best EdTech companies in the CIS by HolonIQ, and reached 43% of schools as accounts, making the project number one educational platform throughout the country.
Aligning internal business processes
Seeing how the pandemic had affected the working conditions, Bamboo Group has severely revised its business processes and implemented remote work practices based on the papers of leading academic institutions. We introduced an updated remote work policy, covering the major requirements for project communication and reporting to maintain transparency between team members.
Additionally, we put much emphasis on further improving the Bamboo Group employer image, which favourably influenced team members’ satisfaction and loyalty. Nowadays, being a great employer, Bamboo Group is privileged to hire middle- and senior-level professionals to deliver quality and highly competitive services for its clients.
To optimize the productivity of team members and harness customer relationship management, project management, and human resources management, we integrated cutting-edge technologies into our workflow.
The year 2020 has also allowed us to optimize Quality Assurance approaches, as well as to apply the experience we’d gathered before in the new and unfamiliar conditions. Our team has adopted QA standardization, which laid the foundation for driving better end-user experience and customer satisfaction from each released external or internal project.
Optimizing financial performance
Bamboo Group has achieved substantial financial growth over the course of 2020.
We have significantly optimized our operating costs, although overall digital marketing expenses rose by 79.9%:
- the total OPEX dropped by 14.69%
- SG&A was optimized by 15.26%
Due to the global situation, we saw an increase in CAC. Our gross profits from software development, marketing, and EdTech companies rose by 24.41%, 25.99%, and 14.94%, respectively. See the key 2020 figures of the gross profit and portfolio companies’ share in the table below:
| Indicator | Software Development | Marketing Agency | Telecom | EdTech |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross profit growth, % | +24.41% | +25.99% | -30.98% | +14.94% |
| Company share in overall revenue structure, % | 48.05% | 26.73% | 20.92% | 4.3% |
Looking ahead
Nowadays, Bamboo Group remains one of the strongest players and business hubs in Eastern & Central Europe and Nordics. It is consistently amassing recognitions through its advanced core activities and the portfolio companies it embraces. In 2021, the company will move towards three directions: continuation of venture capital activities and strategic investments in new startup and scaleup projects from Nordics, Baltics, and Eastern Europe; cultivation of products for entering new markets and gaining an increase in business capitalization; facilitation of professional development and talent acquisition through apprenticeship and mentorship practices in the workplace.
