The earnings season floodgates opened this past week for the FinTech IPO Index, and outsized gains by several names sent the overall index up by 8.1%.
Sezzle shares led the gains, up 44.1%. The company’s latest earnings indicated that gross merchandise volume (GMV) surged 64.1% year over year to $808.7 million, fueled by increased subscriber and on-demand user engagement. Total revenue climbed 123.3% to $104.9 million, marking a new quarterly high. Consumer purchase frequency rose sharply to 6.1 times per year, up from 4.5, reflecting stronger engagement and higher lifetime value per user.
CEO Charlie Youakim highlighted Sezzle’s push toward enterprise-level merchants, saying, “We tend to focus more towards enterprise-level merchants now, although we do have a mid-size funnel as well … but it is definitely a focus towards the larger side of the equation.” He also pointed to new verticals, such as grocery, where buy now, pay later (BNPL) adoption has lagged, as areas of recent traction.
Open Lending’s stock followed with a 43% bump through the past five sessions. The firm’s first quarter results noted that the company facilitated 27,638 certified loans during the first quarter of 2025, compared to 28,189 certified loans in the first quarter of 2024. Total revenue was $24.4 million during the first quarter of 2025, down from $30.7 million in the first quarter of 2024.
Lemonade’s stock gathered 9.5%. In the first quarter, in force premiums were 27% higher to $1 billion, while premiums per customer were 4% higher to $396. The total customer count was 21% higher to 2.5 million. First quarter revenue of $151.2 million increased by $32.1 million or 27% year over year.
Separately, Upstart saw growth in loan originations, with platform originations up 89% year over year to $2.1 billion, driven by personal loans, which grew 83%. Super-prime borrowers accounted for 32% of originations. Ninety-two percent of loans were automated through artificial intelligence, with no human intervention in the mix.
During the conference call with analysts, CEO Dave Girouard said the firm had seen “improved borrower health,” and said that higher conversion rates on lending helped boost revenues by 67%.
“Our credit continues to perform well,” he said. “All else being equal, we believe a faster automated process selects for better borrowers.”
CFO Sanjay Datta said that average loan size of about $8,865 “nudged up” from $8,580 in the prior quarter “as the proportion of loans made to super-prime borrowers increased.”
Those gains among super-prime borrowers are also tightening contribution margins, which came in at 55% in the most recent quarter, down from more than 60% recently, and a similar mid-50% margin is forecast for the current quarter.
Our earnings coverage of Marqeta’s latest results noted that existing card issuance programs grew on a global stage across debit and credit channels. Total processing volume (TPV) of $84 billion was up by 27%.
Mike Milotich, interim CEO and CFO, said that net revenue growth of 18% to $139 million was driven by “the wide variety of use cases we enable for our customers.”
Beyond Block (the company’s largest customer at 45% of Marqeta revenues), Milotich said that non-Block TPV grew at 2x faster than Block TPV, “fueled by a wide range of customers across several use cases. Consistent with the last several quarters, financial services, lending including buy now, pay later, and expense management drove the bulk of our TPV growth.” Lending and expense management TPV continued to grow over 30% “and both accelerated a bit from last quarter,” he said. Marqeta’s common shares got a 9.5% boost.
In non-earnings related news, AvidXchange shares surged 16.1%. In news reported this week, Corpay and global asset management firm TPG have entered into a deal to acquire accounts payable AvidXchange for $10 a share, a 22% premium before the announcement, and a price that values the firm at $2.2 billion.
