Revenue growth was also heavy. With a 16.9-percent increase in revenue and a .5-percentage point increase in gross margin for the most recently ended period, the company’s loss dropped to $55.7 million, compared to a loss of $69.4 million a year ago.  Revenue increased to $183.2 million from $156.7 million. Subscription revenue was $157.4 million, an increase of 16.2 percent from $135.4 million. The company held the line on operating expenses which rose to slightly less than $199 million, an increase of 5 percent from $189.4 million. Siebel also said C3.ai ended 2020 with 89 customers, up 82 percent from 49 a year earlier. Eight industry verticals contributed to the growth, representing 17 percent of recent revenue, more than twice the 8 percent for 2020.  Sales were also geographically more diverse with  34 percent coming from EMEA and APAC, compared to 22 percent in the prior year. C3.ai went public in December with an affiliate of Koch Industries and Microsoft buying shares in a private placement. The companies are hoping to counter Salesforce’s dominance of the CRM market.