Hot on the heels of half year results from buy now pay later providers Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) and Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) today, Sezzle Inc (ASX: SZL) has released its full year results after the market close.
How did Sezzle perform in FY 2019?
During the 12 months ended December 31, Sezzle reported underlying merchant sales (UMS) of US$244.1 million. This was up materially from US$31.1 million in the prior corresponding period.
This led to the company reporting total income of US$16.1 million for the period, up almost 10 times on FY 2018's US$1.63 million.
Sezzle's Net Transaction Margin (NTM) as a percentage of UMS turned positive in FY 2019, reaching 0.3% of UMS. This compares to -1.0% in the previous year and was driven primarily by improvements in Merchant Fees and Net Transaction Losses (NTL).
At the end of the period Sezzle had 914,886 active customers on its platform, up almost 500% year on year from 155,257 in FY 2018. This growth has continued since the turn of the year, with Sezzle surpassing 1 million active customers earlier this month.
Also growing strongly during the 12 months was the company's Active Merchant count. At the end of December, Sezzle reached a milestone of 10,010 merchants. This is up from 2,228 at the end of FY 2018.
One metric heading in the wrong direction was its EBITDA. Sezzle reported an EBITDA loss of $10.7 million during the year, up from a loss of $4 million in FY 2018. This was driven by a large increase in expenses.
Management commentary.
Sezzle's CEO, Charlie Youakim, said: "We are excited to report that we experienced tremendous growth across all our key operating metrics in 2019. This growth, coupled with our becoming a publicly-traded company in July, solidified our position as the leading US-based instalment payments platform."
"Our team is committed to our mission of financially empowering the next generation of consumers and building a brand that makes our stakeholders proud. We forge into 2020 with the momentum of 2019's tremendous success and plans to make a significant impact in the years ahead," he concluded.
