Openpay posts record monthly growth just ahead of releasing its annual results

Active plans up 235% on 12 months earlier
Active customers up 145% on a year ago
Active merchants have grown by 48% relative
Total Transaction Value in July 2020 was $24.0m, up 114%
Revenue was $2.1m v $1.2m in July 2019, up 73%

Buy now, pay later fintech Openpay Group Ltd has reported record sales for July – more than double 12 months ago – as the sector continues to boom during the covid-19 pandemic.

In a statement to the ASX this morning ahead of the release of its annual results on August 31, the BNPL startup (ASX: OPY) reported a record month in July, with Total Transaction Value (TTV) at $24 million, up 114% on $11.2m in July 2019, driven by accelerated Australian e-commerce growth and a continued strong increase in UK trading volumes.

Active plans and customers also hit new highs, growing by 235% and 145% respectively relative compared to 12 months ago.

The company said July was another strong month for retail e-commerce, with trading volumes in the online automotive and healthcare verticals (where businesses are mostly in-store) also up. The Australian online channel contributed 27% of TTV ($4.7m) in July, compared to in-store TTV at 73% ($12.5m).

In April, the first full month of lockdown, online had been 31% ($4.1m), compared to 69% ($9m) in-store.

Openpay also continued its soft launch into the new Membership and Education verticals in July, signing on a range of new customers, including Melbourne City FC and Monash University’s Student Association.

In early August Openpay also signed a three-year revenue sharing agreement with sports, leisure and hospitality SaaS technology provider, MSL Solutions Ltd (ASX: MSL) to integrate Openpay’s BNPL into MSL’s golf and membership products with potential access to 400 golf clubs and up to 135,000 golfers.

The number of active merchants at July 31 was 2,219, up 47%.

Revenue in July increased to $2.1m up 64% company to 2019’s $1.2m.

Net Bad Debts in July, as a percentage of TTV, decreased to 1.54%, down from 2.89% in Q4 FY20 and 4.7% in Q3 FY20.

The company said that drop resulted from improvements to its Automated Risk Management (ARM) system in March.

Openpay announced ex-CBA executive, Jussi Nunes as its new CFO, replacing Andrew Burns.

Openpay CEO Michael Eidel said Nunes was his CFO at CBA’s Cash flow & Transaction Services business.

“Jussi brings with him a wealth of experience and expertise in Financial Services, including payments, lending, merchant acquisition, digital banking, treasury and M&A,” he said.

Burns will remain at Openpay until 4 September 2020, leading the team finalising the full-year results, with Nunes taking on the CFO role from September 7.

The company said the Woolworths and Openpay teams have made strong progress in integrating Openpay for Business, the B2B-focused SaaS-based product, which is expected to deliver revenues in 1H FY21.

Openpay shares jumped more than 10% on the morning’s news to a high of $3.82 before settling to around 6.6% up at $3.70, in mid-afternoon trade.