St. John’s-based Kraken Robotics has extended its run of strong sales growth, the company announced Wednesday, reporting its best-ever financial results for the first quarter with revenue up 175 per cent compared to the same period last year.

About three quarters of its $20.9 million of revenue came from product sales and the balance from its service business, the marine robotics-maker said, with the strongest growth on a percentile basis also coming from the product side.

Kraken has had a busy few months, including appointing a new chairman, Peter Hunter, and raising a total of $37.6 million across two “bought deal” public offerings — a deal structure whereby investment bank Cormark Securities and its partners purchased the stock directly, rather than merely facilitating its sale to other investors. The first $17.5 million was announced in April and the remaining $20.1 million last week.

“We are off to a strong start to 2024 with strength across all areas of our business, record Q1 revenue, and solid adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization), margins of 20 per cent,” said CEO Greg Reid in a statement. “Our balance sheet has been strengthened as we pursue and execute on multiple sizeable subsea defense and commercial programs.”

The company’s revenue guidance is for $90 million to $100 million for the year and EBIDTA of $18 million to $24 million, driven by demand from the defence and offshore energy sectors.

“Kraken expects to use the net proceeds to facilitate its long term strategy … further strengthen the company’s balance sheet in anticipation of upcoming customer and partners' decisions and source selection on additional large, new program and contract opportunities, and for general corporate purposes,” the robotics-maker said previously of its capital raises.

Kraken shares, which trade on the TSX Venture Exchange and have been mostly flat this year, closed at $1.01 Wednesday.