
Sezzle's logo on a welcome board at the Australian Securities Exchange, where its shares started trading Tuesday.
As its initial public offering took off on the Australian Securities Exchange in Sydney Monday night Minnesota time, Sezzle Inc. came unbound from a quiet period and disclosed growth metrics for the second quarter. They showed revenue of $2.2 million, eclipsing sales for full-year 2018, and that Sezzle is still in the hockey-stick portion of its rise.
The Minneapolis fintech company had 5,048 retailers using its payment scheme, which allows low- or no-credit shoppers to buy something and pay it off in installments, on their websites on June 30. That's up 52% from March 31 and faster than the 49% growth in its retail base from the end of last year through March.
The amount of sales handled by Sezzle grew at a slightly slower pace, 47% in the second quarter. But that could change in coming months if it succeeds in attracting larger retailers to offer the Sezzle payment option.
"To date, we've had a lot of success partnering with small businesses," Paul Paradis, Sezzle's chief revenue officer, said Tuesday. "While we see that being a core strategy going forward, we do believe we need to move upstream and work with medium-sized and large enterprises … That's where you get a broader consumer base."
The company will use a sizable portion of the $30 million proceeds from the IPO to beef up its sales and marketing to retailers and develop its technology systems to be able to handle large retail websites.
Next Monday, a new top sales executive, Anna Meyer, will join Sezzle. She's a 14-year sales veteran of SPS Commerce and spent several years working in China and Australia to develop its overseas business.
Sezzle is in a battle with Australia-based Afterpay Touch Group to provide alternative payment options to U.S. retailers eager to reach e-commerce customers, particularly young adults, who don't have credit cards or don't want to use them. Both firms take a fee from retailers, as credit card firms do, for facilitating transactions.