Amping up its lending and getting its act together on collections, Beforepay is crawling along its “pathway to profitability”. 

Listed on the ASX in January, the heavy advertising payday lender pushed out A$88 million in cash advances over the March 2022 quarter, a business update yesterday shows.

The average pay advance was $282, up from an average of $260 in the prior quarter and $163 in the March quarter last year.

The lender’s “net transaction loss” in the March quarter was 2.2 per cent, down from 5.3 per cent in the December quarter.

Its “net transaction margin” was 1.2 per cent this quarter, compared with a negative 2.7 per cent margin in December.

This turnaround was driven by “refinements to the risk model, customer limit management and recoveries, as well as the end of the temporary ‘holiday limit increase’” in the second quarter, the company told the ASX.

Beforepay put its “income” for the quarter at $4.04 million, up from $1.35 million in the second quarter.

The only profit metric disclosed was EBITDA excluding one off or significant items. EBITDA was in the red to the tune of $4.9 million, worsening from $3.8 million in the prior quarter.

Having raised $35 million through its IPO, Beforepay provided an outline of its uses of funds.

It has burned through $9.4 million so far, of which $3.4 million was applied to marketing and customer acquisition.