Summary
Asana closed fiscal 2022 with fourth-quarter revenue of $111.9 million, up 64% from the prior-year quarter. Full-year revenue reached $378.4 million, up 67% year over year. The company ended the year with over 119,000 paying customers, versus over 93,000 a year earlier. Growth among larger accounts ran much faster. Customers spending $50,000 or more on an annualized basis reached 894, an increase of 125%. Customers spending $5,000 or more reached 15,437, up 52%. Management credits enterprise demand for the acceleration. The product team stayed busy, adding more than 200 features during fiscal 2022 and launching Asana Flow in February 2022.
Gross margin stayed high. Fourth-quarter GAAP gross margin was 89.7%, up from 88.0% in the prior-year quarter, and full-year GAAP gross margin was 89.7%, up from 87.3%. Operating losses widened on a GAAP basis. The fourth-quarter GAAP operating loss was $87.1 million, or negative 77.8% of revenue, against a loss of $51.0 million, or negative 74.5% of revenue, a year earlier. That is a 3.2 percentage point decline in operating margin. For the full year, the GAAP operating loss was $265.2 million, or negative 70.1% of revenue, against $175.6 million, or negative 77.3% of revenue, and full-year operating margin improved 7.3 percentage points. GAAP net loss was $90.0 million in the quarter against $61.5 million, and $288.3 million for the year against $211.7 million. Full-year diluted loss per share narrowed to $1.63 from $1.99. The expense base reflects a much heavier organization. Headcount reached 1,666 employees as of January 31, 2022, up 54% from a year earlier.
Cash flow moved the wrong way in the quarter. Operating cash flow was negative $39.3 million, against negative $18.2 million a year earlier. On a full-year basis, operating cash flow was negative $83.8 million, against negative $92.9 million. Capital expenditures were $1.3 million in the quarter, down from $22.2 million. Free cash flow, a non-GAAP measure, was negative $41.2 million in the quarter, against negative $17.5 million a year earlier, and negative $87.6 million for the full year against negative $76.0 million. Non-GAAP operating loss was $43.9 million, against $34.8 million, and non-GAAP net loss was $46.9 million, against $35.0 million.
Deferred revenue ended the year at $174.2 million, up 64.5% from a year earlier, and remaining performance obligations were $218.1 million, up 78.3%. Retention looks solid. The overall dollar-based net retention rate was over 120%. For customers spending $5,000 or more, the rate was over 130%, and for those spending $50,000 or more, it was over 145%. Asana guided for fiscal 2023 first-quarter revenue growth of 49% to 51% year over year, along with a non-GAAP operating loss of $68.0 million to $66.0 million and a non-GAAP net loss per share of $0.36 to $0.35. For the full fiscal year 2023, management guided to revenue growth of 39% to 40%. The forward view carries the usual caveats. Asana flags a competitive and rapidly evolving market, the need to keep attracting and expanding customers, the challenge of scaling the platform and its self-service model, risks tied to international expansion, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which could pressure IT spending, lengthen sales cycles and hurt retention.
Forecast
Reported figures
GAAP, from SEC filings| Metric | Q4 FY2022 | Q3 FY2022 | QoQ | Q4 FY2021 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $111.9M | $100.3M | +11.6% | $68.4M | +63.7% |
| Gross profit | $100.4M | $90.8M | +10.6% | $60.2M | +66.9% |
| Gross margin | 89.7% | 90.5% | -0.8 pp | 88.0% | +1.7 pp |
| Research & development | $60.9M | $53.8M | +13.3% | $39.8M | +53.0% |
| Sales & marketing | $88.9M | $73.3M | +21.3% | $53.5M | +66.1% |
| General & administrative | $37.7M | $31.8M | +18.6% | $17.8M | +111.5% |
| Total operating expenses | $187.5M | $158.8M | +18.0% | $111.1M | +68.7% |
| Operating income (loss) | -$87.1M | -$68.1M | -27.9% | -$51.0M | -70.8% |
| Operating margin | -77.8% | -67.9% | -9.9 pp | -74.5% | -3.2 pp |
| Net income (loss) | -$90.0M | -$69.3M | -30.0% | -$61.5M | -46.4% |
| Net margin | -80.4% | -69.0% | -11.4 pp | -90.0% | +9.5 pp |
| Diluted EPS | -$0.51 | -$0.37 | -$0.14 | — | — |
| Net retention rate | 120.0% | 120.0% | ±0.0 pp | 115.0% | +5.0 pp |
Risks
Asana expects its revenue growth rate to decline in future periods even after fiscal 2022 year-to-date revenue rose to $378.4 million, up 66.7% from $227.0 million in fiscal 2021 year to date. Future growth depends on new customer additions, free-to-paid conversion, expansion within organizations, and competition against established and new entrants.
Asana has incurred net losses in each fiscal year since founding and does not expect to be profitable in the near future. Fiscal 2022 year-to-date net loss widened to $288.3 million from $211.7 million in fiscal 2021 year to date, and operating loss widened to $265.2 million from $175.6 million, while operating expenses rose to $604.7 million from $373.8 million.
The work management market is increasingly competitive, fragmented, and has relatively low barriers to entry, with competitors ranging from large diversified software companies to smaller entrants and internal tools. Competitors may have greater resources or engage in aggressive pricing or offer price concessions during the COVID-19 pandemic, which could reduce revenue, gross profit, and market share.
The loss of key personnel, particularly co-founder, President, CEO, and Chair Dustin Moskovitz, would disrupt operations. Competition for executive, engineering, and sales talent is intense, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, and equity incentives may be less effective as the company matures. No key person insurance is maintained.
Substantially all revenues derive from a single work management solution, so continued demand for that platform is critical. Changes in customer preferences or adoption of competing or internally developed tools could have a disproportionately greater impact than if the company offered multiple products.
COVID-19 continues to disrupt operations and demand, with risks of longer sales cycles, lower-priced or more favorable contract terms, reduced subscription value or duration, collection delays, and customer attrition, especially among small and medium-sized customers. MD&A notes the pandemic's impact was most evident in the overall dollar-based net retention rate and remains uncertain.
As Asana targets larger organizations, sales efforts involve greater costs, longer sales cycles, less predictability, and more customization and support demands. The company must expand and train its direct sales force, and failure to hire or retain productive sales personnel could harm revenue growth.
Dustin Moskovitz beneficially owned a majority of the voting power of Asana's capital stock as of January 31, 2022, and the July 1, 2021 conversion of the Convertible Notes into 17,012,822 Class B shares increased his voting power. The dual-class structure concentrates control and may limit other stockholders' ability to influence corporate matters.
Future issuances of capital stock or securities convertible into capital stock in financings, acquisitions, or investments may significantly dilute existing stockholders. The exercise of stock options and settlement of RSUs will also result in further dilution.
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, sanctions and retaliatory measures created global security concerns and could have lasting regional and global economic effects. International operations also expose Asana to foreign currency declines, longer sales cycles, and regulatory complexity, with 42% of fiscal 2022 revenue generated outside the United States.
SaaS KPIs
All quarters →Free cash flow
Non-GAAP operating margin
Non-GAAP gross margin
Paying Customers
Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate (Overall)
Paid Users
Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate (Customers Spending $5,000+)
Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate (Customers Spending $50,000+)
Summary, forecast, risks and KPIs are extracted from Asana, Inc.'s SEC filings for Q4 FY2022 (10-Q / 10-K and the 8-K earnings release); GAAP figures in the summary are checked against the reported XBRL data. They can contain errors; the filings are authoritative. Processed Oct 2, 2026.