Sage has reported an 8.5% rise in revenue to £1.6bn.

The software company also saw subscription growth rise by 20.5% to £1.1bn.

Operating profit was down 3.7% from £406m to £391m in the year ended 30 September 2020.

The growth in revenue was mainly thanks to the growing demand and number of new customers in Northern Europe and North America.

Steve Hare, the chief executive, said: “We’ve delivered a strong performance in FY20, achieving recurring revenue growth in line with the guidance we gave at the beginning of the year, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I would like to thank all of our colleagues and partners for their continuing commitment to our customers, communities and each other during this period. We’ve also made good strategic progress, delivering against our customer, colleague and innovation commitments.

“While the near term remains uncertain, these foundations position us well to support customers as they adopt digital business models, and I am confident that our additional investment in Sage Business Cloud, and in particular cloud native solutions, will deliver stronger growth and drive the future success of the Group,” he added.

Looking forward, Sage is expecting recurring revenue growth for the next financial year to be in the region of 3% to 5%, weighted towards the second half of the year.

The group plans to invest more in its cloud business.