Buy now pay later company Sezzle’s commitment to cut costs, rein in credit losses and move to profitability showed some signs of progress in the June half but the company has a long way to go.

Sezzle reported a loss of US$43.1 million for the six months to June, compared with a loss of US$30.7 million in the previous corresponding period.

Revenue rose 6.5 per cent to US$56.9 million but expenses rose 20.6 per cent to US$96.6 million.

While personnel costs were only up a little, spending on tech doubled and the marketing budget increased threefold. If the company is serious about cutting costs, as it has said a couple of times this year, it is not evident from these results.

It appears more likely that the company is still chasing profitless growth. Active customer numbers grew 18 per cent to 3.4 million and active merchant numbers grew 18 per cent to 47,642.

One area where there was a meaningful reduction was in the provision for uncollectable accounts, which fell from US$22.4 million in the June half last year to $18.3 million in the latest half. 

The company said it tightened its credit underwriting and “restructured” contracts with merchants that exhibited high consumer loss rates.

Sezzle investors were looking for more than baby steps and marked the stock down 15 per cent after the results came out.