FinTech IPO Index Gains 1.2% as MoneyLion and Sezzle Surge

Earnings dragged down several names in the FinTech IPO Index, but the overall performance was positive, up 1.2%.

A few double-digit gainers led the way.

MoneyLion shares gained more than 20% through the past five sessions.

As has been spotlighted by PYMNTS earlier in the month, the business model has been transforming toward what CEO Dee Choubey told Karen Webster might be likened to the Expedia of financial services.

He has said that the average FICO score in the U.S. is about 710, while MoneyLion’s installed base tracks above that level. Fifty-five percent of MoneyLion’s enterprise business comes from personal loans, which can range from $10,000 to $50,000. The strategies in the months and years ahead, he said — and for 20% to 30% growth —  include leveraging GenAI and other technologies to link accounts so that customers have a holistic view of their finances.

Sezzle shares were up more than 19%. As reported midmonth, Celerant Technology now enables the users of its eCommerce platform to offer their customers buy now, pay later (BNPL) options when checking out in-store as well as online.

The company has implemented additional integration functionalities with Sezzle to allow these options at the point of sale, in-store, Celerant said in a press release.

The two companies had already partnered to offer BNPL options online, where those efforts had been announced in April 2023.

Earnings Lead to Downside

Those gains were offset by companies that saw their stocks driven by earnings-related news.

Futu Holdings released its most recent results this past week.

The company said in its release that the first quarter’s $331.3 million in revenues were up 9.2% quarter-over-quarter. The company’s new paying clients grew by 331% year over year (YoY) to 177,161, and its daily average revenue trades in Q1 increased YoY by 7% to 549,854. Through the quarter’s end, the company said that it had 22.5 million global users and 1.9 million paying clients, up 12.3% and 23.5% respectively. In Japan, the company said, moomoo reported over 200% quarter over quarter increase in registered clients by the end of the latest quarter.

Futu shares were down 2.5%.

Huize said in its own March quarter results that, across its insurance platform, first-year premiums more than doubled sequentially and increased by 29.7% YoY to 857.2 million yuan.

The cumulative number of insurance clients served increased to 9.6 million as of March 31. Huize cooperated with 120 insurer partners, including 74 life and health insurance companies and 46 property and casualty insurance companies, as of the end of March. The repeat purchase rate for long-term insurance products of 40.4%, was a 70% increase YoY.

Gross written premiums facilitated on the platform was 1,718 million yuan ($237.9 million) in the first quarter of 2024, a decrease of 11.1%  Operating revenue was 310.3 million yuan ($43 million) in the first quarter of 2024, an increase of 3.8% YoY. The company’s stock lost 9.1%,

Elsewhere KE Holdings released its most recent financial report, and shares lost 9%.

The company reported that gross transaction value was 629.9 billion yuan ($87.2 billion), a decrease of 35.2% YoY. GTV of existing home transactions was 453.2 billion yuan ($62.8 billion), a decrease of 31.8% YoY. GTV of new home transactions was 151.8 billion yuan ($21 billion), a decrease of 45.4% YoY. Net revenues were 16.4 billion yuan ($2.3 billion), a decrease of 19.2% YoY.

The company said that the number of stores was 44,216 as of March, a 7.1% increase from last year. The number of active stores was 42,593, up 7.5%.  The number of mobile monthly active user averaged 47.7 million.

Upstart shares were flat.

The company said it had struck a partnership with Seattle Credit Union, based in Washington state with over $1 billion in assets and 55,000 members. The joint efforts provide personal loans to new and existing members, and expands on an existing relationship.

Seattle Credit Union became an Upstart Referral Network lending partner in February 2023. With the Upstart Referral Network, qualified personal loan applicants on Upstart.com who meet Seattle Credit Union’s credit policies will receive tailored offers as they transition into a Seattle Credit Union-branded experience to complete the online member application and closing process.

AvidXchange shares lost 4.3%.

In an announcement, AvidXchange and MIP Fund Accounting by Community Brands partnered to provide a fully digitized invoice-to-pay process to nonprofit groups.

With this collaboration, AvidXchange’s accounts payable automation solution has been integrated into MIP’s cloud-based, software-as-a-service fund accounting solution for nonprofits and government organizations and will be offered to MIP’s 6,000 customers.

The API integration between AvidXchange and MIP allows customers to sync general ledger codes, vendor lists, invoices and payments.

The fully digitized invoice-to-pay process created by this integration also includes configurable user permissions, transparency into data flows between the systems, custom workflows that support additional layers of control on the platform, and real-time data and insights into the organization’s finances.