Novatti gets funding boost, chasing bank licence

Bernard Kellerman

Novatti chief executive Peter Cook released an update on his company's September quarter results on Friday (29 October).  He was keen to highlight two aspects:

•    A$5.3m in quarterly sales revenue, up 49 per cent year-on-year and the first time sales have passed the $5 million mark;
•    $4.2m in quarterly processing sales revenue - up 103 per cent YoY 

The completion of a $40m plus capital raising during the quarter has left Novatti with $19.9 million war chest (as at 30 September 20210). 

This has allowed the company's payments processing and card issuing operations to expand into new markets – notably the acquisition of another payments fintech, ATX, which has a strong presence in South East Asia. Cook said ATX has been a Novatti "partner" since 2015, "de-risking" the deal.

Novatti has also closed the Series A funding round for its new banking business, with $10.5m committed.  Cook noted that discussions with APRA are continuing, along with other moves such as:

•    expanding a partnership with cross-border payments fintech Ripple into Thailand;
•    starting integration testing with Visa and Mastercard for acquiring licences to deliver increased margins; and
•    beginning discussions with Reckon on servicing the needs of their customers, following Novatti's strategic investment into the small business accounting software firm.