Opendoor and DeFi Development Lead as FinTech IPO Index Jumps 4.4%

The FinTech IPO Index surged by 4.4% this past week, borne aloft by huge gains in a few names, and double-digit swings across several Index components were commonplace. Earnings continued to roll in through the past five sessions.

Opendoor Technologies roared ahead by more than 64%. The company has been in the headlines as financial news sites such as investing.com reported that two hedge funds bought staked in the company.  As reported, Qube Research & Technologies purchased 12.5 million shares valued at $30.3 million last quarter. Weiss Asset Management acquired 9.1 million shares worth $24 million, the site noted.

Earnings Reports Continue to Roll In

DeFi Development shares gathered 45.4%. In the company’s second-quarter report, the data shows that revenues were up 350% year over year to just under $2 billion. Within that line item, digital asset treasury revenues were about $1.2 billion.

In PYMNTS’ coverage of Paysafe earnings, the company reported organic growth across key segments including eCommerce, and transaction volumes swelled 10%. Gaming and FinTech sectors represented areas of growth, according to management commentary on the conference call.

CEO Bruce Lowthers said on the conference call with analysts that top-line momentum should continue, since “compared to this time last year, our enterprise-level deals and the annual contract value of those bookings are up more than 20% year-to-date, with a healthy backlog of signed business across the gaming and FinTech sectors, including digital asset and Paysafe merchants scheduled to go live in the near term.” eCommerce growth topped 30% in the quarter and was broad-based across several verticals.

Paysafe shares were up 18.8%.

Katapult reported a 30.4% year-over-year growth in gross originations (to $72.1 million) and 22.1% revenue growth (to $71.9 million). The company said that 60% of gross originations originated within the Katapult app, with app-originated applications up 39%, and KPay originations up 81%, accounting for 39% of total gross originations. Katapult’s stock inched up about 1.8%.

Blend Lab’s total revenue in the latest quarter reached $31.5 million, up approximately 10% year-over-year, driven by an 11% increase in software platform revenue, including a 43% surge in Consumer Banking Suite revenue to $11.4 million, partly offset by a 3% decline in Mortgage Suite revenue ($18.0 million). Shares of Blend Labs dipped by 20.1%.

Sezzle shares plummeted by more than 34% in the wake of its own quarterly results, which bowed late last week. As PYMNTS reported, monthly active users rose 52% year over year, and as CEO Charlie Youakim said, “the engagement from revenue generating users increased 138%.”

Purchase frequency was up year-over-year but flat sequentially. Youakim said the trend was due to the “launch of On Demand as it has shown a significant amount of growth in a very short time. Longer term, the short-term investment with On Demand users will lead to greater profitability. Our On Demand users are profitable, but just not as profitable as our premium or anywhere subscribers. But over time, we believe that On Demand users will migrate further into our products suite and become future Anywhere enthusiasts.”

Earnings materials revealed that there were 2.8 million active consumers in the second quarter. There were 412,000 merchants in the latest quarter, up from 346,000 in the first quarter. Monthly on-demand and subscriber counts reached 748,000, compared to 462,000 last year, and were up 14% sequentially.

Beyond Earnings

In non-earnings news, dLocal’s stock rocketed ahead by more than 43%. The company announced that it has debuted a solution for Brazilian merchants centered around the country’s Pix payments system. The new solution, SmartPix, lets merchants process tokenized Pix payments, including recurring and on-demand charges, without having customers manually authorize each transaction, per an announcement last week. The company said SmartPix fills the gap between Pix and Pix Automático, meeting a need for more flexible recurring and automated payments.

Affirm shares slipped 2.5%.

The company said this week that two integrations aimed at expanding its buy now, pay later (BNPL) options across both online and in-person retail have deepened in-place ties with Google and Stripe. U.S. shoppers using Google Chrome’s desktop browser can now select Affirm directly from the browser’s autofill menu at checkout.

The move builds on Affirm’s earlier integration with Google Pay and is designed to make installment payment plan use more frictionless. The firm also said it had become the first BNPL provider to integrate with the point-of-sale hardware Stripe Terminal. Shoppers at participating stores will be able to scan a QR code at checkout to apply for financing, with repayment terms ranging from 30 days to 60 months.