Specialist lender QuickFee suffered a heavy loss in the six months to December as it poured money into what it hopes will be the future growth of the business.

Net income of A$4.4 million was up 13 per cent on the previous corresponding period, while the cost of sales was up 43 per cent, general and administrative expenses were up 48 per cent and sales and marketing expenses were up 140 per cent.

The bottom line was a loss of $7.3 million for the half-year, a blowout from of a loss of $2.9 million in the December half 2020. Cash outflow from operating activities was $10.4 million.

Cash on the balance sheet fell from $21.3 million at June 30 last year to $11.8 million at the end of December.

QuickFee’s core business is a form of receivables finance for accounting and law firms, and other service companies, allowing them to set up monthly payment plans for their clients. Clients take out loans with terms of up to 12 months.

More recently it has got into the buy now pay later market, signing up 128 clients during the half.

It is also getting into the accounting services sector with the development of a digital invoicing platform, QuickFee Connect.

The local business was launched in 2009 and QuickFee US was launched in 2016. The Australian market was subdued and net interest income was down. All the growth in revenue came from the US.

Loan receivables increased from $26.2 million at June 30 last year to $28.3 million at the end of December. The Australian book grew 6 per cent half-on-half to $20.2 million and the US book grew 12 per cent to $5.8 million.

Payment processing receivables grew from $887,900 to $1.3 million over the same period.