IOUpay’s (ASX:IOU) June quarter sees major partnerships, product launches and upgraded BNPL offering - Kalkine Media

Highlights

• IOUpay Limited (ASX:IOU) has witnessed three successive quarters of positive effective operating cashflow.
• The quarter saw a spike in new sign ups, onboarding, and activation of merchant outlets.
• Strong customer downloads and onboarding continued during the reported period.
• The company significantly advanced partnerships and significant strategic initiatives to access large markets of new merchants and consumers.
• IOU looks to grow its market share and pursue new markets and diversified growth.

With the end of June 2022 quarter, IOUpay Limited (ASX:IOU) witnessed three successive quarters of positive effective operating cashflow.  

During the period, the company maintained its brand values of pursuing quality merchants, credit-worthy consumers, and profitable transactions. IOU also made significant progress in terms of new strategic partnerships and significant strategic initiatives that align with its objective to diversify growth along the consumer finance value chain.

IOU also appointed Dato’ Wan Asmadi Wan Ahmad as a non-executive director and the elected non-executive Chairman, effective from 30 June 2022.

Let us look at IOU’s progress during the quarter.

myIOU BNPL transactions

The quarter saw an increase in the myIOU Income Margin over the prior period. Net Transaction Revenues (NTR) stood at AU$340,472 and Total Transaction Value (TTV) was noted at AU$5,399,968.

IOU’s TTV reached AU$29,094,163, delivering NTR of AU$1,992,854 on a fiscal year-to-date basis, resulting in myIOU Income Margin of 6.8% for FY22.

myIOU platform now has around 2,400 active merchant outlets across 13 industry verticals, representing the physical and online shopfronts of over 870 merchant relationships from across Malaysia. Moreover, there are over 2,000 merchant outlets signed at the June quarter end yet to be assessed for activation.

IOU added 114 new merchants to its BNPL platform that are operating 414 outlets around Malaysia. The company also reported an increase in consumer engagement with a 59% increase in consumer downloads, 65% growth in consumer onboarding and 67% uptick in consumer account activation as compared to the March quarter of 2022.

Below is the snapshot of IOU’s progress across various deals during the June quarter 2022. 

Source: ©Kalkine Media®; © Media Element Bekeen.co via Canva.com 

Data source: IOU reports

Shariah Compliance Certification

IOU plans to launch a Shariah-compliant BNPL offering under the name ‘myIOU Islamic’. After completing certification as updated in July, IOU is preparing to provide Islamic as well as conventional financing.

The company has concluded an agreement with PayHalal, a Shariah-compliant payment gateway, and integration works have also been completed to support merchant onboarding.

IOU remains optimistic about being operationally equipped during the December quarter to process Shariah-compliant BNPL transactions.

Technology development initiatives

• IOU concluded Phase two of the myIOU 2.0 technology upgrade that included various enhancements to the myIOU App. The updated app is now slated for a rollout on the Apple Appstore and Google Playstore in early August 2022.
• The mobile software development kits announced in the March quarter were released ahead of schedule in May 2022.
• During the June quarter, IOU also became certified as compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), which is needed by payment card brands and acquirers to assist in protecting and regulating the security of card transactions.
• The PCI compliance remains a continuing process that supports offering protection for payment systems from security breaches and theft of cardholder data. Moreover, the continuing process of review and annual audit helps in enhancing the IT infrastructure efficiency.
• As per the Shopify Revenue Sharing Agreement for Payments Developers with Shopify Commerce Singapore PTE LTD, the myIOU BNPL offering was made available to Malaysian merchants operating on the payment platform of Shopify.
• IOU finalised the integration work for seamless operation of myIOU, and the Business Development and Merchant Services Teams of IOU are now marketing this new functionality to existing and prospective merchant customers of IOU.

Investment update and cash position

During the quarter, IOU confirmed the second tranche payment for the remaining IDSB investment at ~AU$7.0 million, with the net amount payable being ~AU$4.0 million after applying funds held in escrow. The company also reached an agreement with the vendor shareholders of IDSB to extend the settlement period until 31 August 2022.   

IOU ended the quarter with AU$5,857,000 in cash and call deposits, excluding a deposit of around AU$3,084,000 for the IDSB transaction.

Way forward for IOU

Recent developments reinforce the company’s market leadership and boost expansion into new markets. IOU’s mobile banking division plans to tap new client relationships to use improved capacity by securing greater transaction volumes to expand its market share.

The fintech player seems well poised to leverage its brand leadership, secure and scalable technology platform, and product innovation to follow new markets and diversified growth through a broader base of consumer finance offerings with recurring revenue streams.

IOU shares traded at AU$0.091 on 01 August 2022.