PTC CEO: IoT Growth Shows It's A 'Major Strategic Differentiator For Industrial Companies'

PTC CEO Jim Heppelmann said fast sales growth of the company's Internet of Things and augmented reality products show that they are becoming a "major strategic differentiator for industrial companies."

The Needham, Mass.-based industrial software company reported second-quarter earnings Wednesday, saying that revenue for the quarter grew 9.8 percent year over year to $308.2 million.

While IoT software, which includes PTC's ThingWorx software, still constitutes a smaller fraction of total revenue, it remained PTC's fastest-growing business, growing 33 percent year over year in the second quarter to $29 million. The company's software solutions business, which includes PTC's computer-aided design and product life-cycle management software, grew 10 percent year over year to $234 million.

During PTC's Wednesday earnings call, Heppelmann said customer expansion deals represented roughly half of second-quarter bookings, increasing the number of six-figure deals by 45 percent. The CEO highlighted Exxon Mobil, Airbus and an unnamed "leading global food and beverage" company as significant customers.

Another contributor to this quarter was a previously unveiled partnership between PTC and Microsoft that brought the companies "several smart, connected product engagements" for a joint deployment of ThingWorx and Microsoft's Azure IoT service. The two companies also scored a "significant joint win with a well-known elevator company," Heppelmann said.

PTC also saw momentum with its Vuforia AR development platform, which now has over 450,000 developers, and its ThingWorx Studio AR software, which is being used or tested by nearly 8,000 enterprises, Heppelman said. One of the company's major customer wins for ThingWorx Studios in Q2 was "the world's largest aerospace and defense manufacturer," the CEO added.

"Q2 provided another proof point that adoption of these technologies is becoming a major strategic differentiator for industrial companies across a wide range of vertical markets, geographies and use cases," Heppelmann said. "Our growing ecosystem of partners including major players like Microsoft further strengthens PTC's leadership position in these exciting growth markets."