Pushpay attracts more revenue through its merchants, plans share split

Wednesday 13th January 2016

Pushpay Holdings, the mobile payments app developer targeting churches in the US, saw more revenue flow through its system in the final quarter of last year, and is confident of achieving its medium-term target.

Annualised committed monthly revenue (ACMR), which measures the total billings through merchants that Pushpay collects fees from, increased to $20.4 million in the three months ended Dec. 31, from $14 million in the three months ended Sept. 30, the Auckland-domiciled, Redmond, US-headquartered company said in a statement.

The company said its short-term target to increase ACMR to more than $28 million by March 31 could be impacted should the New Zealand dollar continue to strengthen against the US dollar, given 94 percent of its merchants are in North America. The kiwi gained 6.5 percent against the greenback last quarter, it said. However it "remains confident" ACMR will exceed $100 million by August 2018.

Average revenue per merchant increased 4 percent to $24 a month. The slower increase in the level of revenue Pushpay actually derives from a customer was due to the currency's quarterly gain.

Pushpay provides mobile commerce tools that help make payments easy between consumers and merchants and is geared to mobile charitable giving. It’s targeting the US faith sector for growth, where there are more than 314,000 churches with an average 500 attendees each, along with non-profit organisations and enterprises. It's foregoing short-term profits to invest in future growth in the US, and added more customers and staff in the latest quarter.

"We will continue to execute on our USA growth plan, and remain confident in reaching our medium-term target of exceeding $100 million of merchant ACMR by August 2018," said chief executive Chris Heaslip. "Pushpay continues to gain market share in the USA faith sector."

Pushpay expects to reach its targets based on further development of its product, direct sales, referrals strategy and through targeting merchants that have existing relationships with its strategic channel partners and other distribution partners, it said.

The company increased staff numbers by 35 percent to 193 at the end of the December quarter, from the September quarter, with 74 percent based in the US. Its merchant customer base increased by 36 percent to 2,860.

Its cash and available funding lines jumped 133 percent to $19.7 million at the end of the December quarter after it raised $18.8 million in a private placement in October.

The company plans to split each of its shares into four in an attempt to boost the liquidity of its stock and attract further shareholders. The record date for the split is Feb. 5 at 5pm.

Its stock gained 5.9 percent to $6.70, the highest level in almost a week.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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