The Openpay Group Ltd (ASX: OPY) share price briefly opened higher this morning, up 3% to $1.24 after the company announced its June quarter results.
But its rally was short-lived, sliding back into negative territory, down 1.25% to $1.185 at the time of writing.
Openpay share price continues to struggle following quarterly results
The Openpay share price has really struggled to stay afloat this year, sliding almost 50% year-to-date. While its shares might be tumbling, the company continues to make headway in the BNPL space.
In the June quarter, the company reported 2.0 million active plans, a 141% increase on the prior corresponding period (pcp) and up 16% quarter-on-quarter.
Openpay had 541,000 active customers during the quarter, achieving a growth rate of 69% on the pcp. The company advised that 51% of active customers were from the UK.
Pleasingly, Openpay said that strong customer engagement and awareness has translated to its highest-ever percentage of active plans held by repeat customers.
Active merchants on the platform increased 77% on pcp to 3,800. This figure represents the company's strongest year-on-year growth in terms of active merchants.
What to look out for in FY22
While the Openpay share price might have opened lower on Wednesday, the company revealed a number of growth initiatives for the year ahead.
Openpay signed two partnership agreements with major platform and aggregator partners in Australia and New Zealand. The company described this move as one which will enable merchants to "simply switch on Openpay as a payment type" rather than signing them up one-by-one.
Openpay UK has now outpaced Australia in terms of total active customers.
The company continues to focus on driving UK partnerships to position its product in front of thousands of new merchants. It also intends to expand into new verticals such as healthcare.
Back in June, Openpay acquired a leading automotive BNPL provider in the UK.
The acquisition of Payment Assist would welcome more than 177,000 active customers and 4,500 merchants to Openpay.
This move was aimed at providing the company with "significant expansion and scale opportunity" in the UK automotive vertical.
Finally, and perhaps most exciting, is Openpay's plan to launch in the United States in early October 2021.
The company said that it has "built a large pipeline of banking and funding partners, wholesale merchant aggregators aligned with our key verticals".
Management commentary
Openpay CEO Michael Eidel commented on the company's achievements to date saying:
"The June quarter was perhaps the most pivotal for Openpay since we announced our US launch in December. Headlining the quarter was our acquisition of leading UK BNPL Auto provider, Payment Assist. The combination of their strong, profitable franchise in Auto with our organic launch in Healthcare in June creates a formidable player in the UK BNPL market with significant growth synergies.
With a US launch right around the corner, Eidel also added:
We are putting the finishing touches on our launch into the US market, targeting go-live in our key Healthcare vertical in early October 2021. This will present another major step forward for Openpay and the first of many very significant commercial opportunities for Opy USA.
A long way to go for the Openpay share price
The Openpay share price is down 47% year-to-date from $2.26 to $1.185 at the time of writing.
Looking ahead, the company believes that "FY22 will be the year when Openpay will record initial substantial volume growth in the largest global consumer market, the US, where all high-growth competitors have built a presence, creating a fundamental quantum leap in growth and scale."
