Working to understand C3.ai’s growth story

The end-of-year IPO wave continues, this time with C3.ai moving closer to its own formal debut by updating its S-1 filing with third-quarter data.

The new data provides the market with a much better look into how the unicorn AI company's business has progressed during the COVID-19 era, and should help public investors price the company's equity as it looks to float.

TechCrunch previously explored C3.ai's performance through the its July 31 quarter. Today we received information about its subsequent fiscal period, the quarter ending October 31.

We noted during our initial dig into C3.ai's numbers that while the AI startup has had strong historical revenue growth - from $92 million to $157 million in the fiscal years ending April 31, 2019 and 2020 - in more recent quarters, its pace of expansion has slowed.

This brings us to the October 31, 2020, period. Let's explore what changed for C3.ai and what did not.

C3.ai's growth story

In the October 31, 2019, quarter C3.ai generated $38.9 million in total revenue, counting both its subscription (high gross-margin) and services (low gross-margin) incomes. That figure grew to $41.3 million in the January 31, 2020, quarter.