Wisr delivers record loan origination growth on the back of an oversubscribed capital raise and multi-product business momentum
Wisr Limited (ASX: WZR), Australia’s first neo-lender, grew new loan originations to a record $18.8 million last quarter, the Company announced as part of its Q3FY19 business update.
It is the Company’s single largest quarter in loan origination value and it takes total historic loan value to $86.9 million. It represents a 293% increase in quarterly loan origination value when compared to the same period last year (Q3FY18) and was up 11% on Q2FY19.
Anthony Nantes, Chief Executive Officer, Wisr said “We are pleased to report another successive quarter of record loan origination growth, combined with a heavily oversubscribed share placement which has raised $15 million to support the Company’s ambitious growth agenda.
In addition to strong core metrics across the Company this quarter, we continue to deliver on our strategic platforms. We have had a fantastic consumer response to the official launch of Wisr App, continued the strong growth in customer numbers on the WisrCredit product, and demonstrated significant progress on our Wisr@Work and Wisr&Co platforms. Additionally, we have also been able to attract some impressive senior talent to the organisation, with key hires in place to assist us in executing our strategy.”
Wisr continued to see momentum in lending through its broker channel where the Company works with many of Australia’s largest financial aggregators and now has relationships in place with more than 5,500 brokers across the country. The Company will continue to seek out opportunities with new aggregators in the coming months.
Corporate partnerships strategy
The Company also announced it will open up its proprietary loan processing platform to allow other organisations to partner and offer the Wisr financial wellness suite.
The Wisr&Co platform allows any company to deliver the Wisr suite of financial solutions to its members or customers. Wisr will begin to roll-out pilot programs with partner organisations in the coming weeks following 18 months of investment in people, processes and technology to deliver these solutions.
Nantes said “Our unique partnership models and focus on genuine financial wellness speaks to both the flexibility of our technology platform and ability to create new growth channels to deliver financially fair products to more Australians through strategic partnerships. Wisr continues to deliver new growth channels as part of its neo-lender strategy to accompany the organic growth from our core personal loan business. The Wisr&Co platform and technology suite can provide full white-label, grey-label or co-branded options for any major corporation in Australia to deliver a consumer finance offering to market within weeks, not years as is the current industry standard.”
HCF Catalyst Accelerator program underway
Wisr has begun working with the country’s largest not-for-profit health fund (with reach to approximately 1.5 million Australians) as part of the HCF Catalyst Accelerator program.
The Catalyst Accelerator program, now in its fourth year, is designed to support innovation in health care by providing funding and hands-on resources to some of Australia’s most promising new business models.
The program began in late March and Wisr has begun working closely with HCF executives and commercial development teams to develop solutions that help improve the financial wellness of Australians, and thus making healthcare more affordable.
HCF said: “HCF is working alongside Wisr to find solutions that make health care more accessible to members, as well as raise awareness of the link between wellness and money issues. This is a great example of how we work with businesses like Wisr to deliver innovation in health care.”
Credit quality and Net Promoter Score
Wisr continued to deliver consistently strong credit quality with the Annualised Gross Default Rate in line with previously reported data and well below its 2% target since FY16.
Net Promoter Score, which measures customer and broker satisfaction, remained high during the quarter, up marginally at +61 from +60 during H1FY19. This continues to be considered best-in-class when compared across the banking and finance industry.
First tranche of capital raise completed
Cash on hand was circa $12 million following the capital raising announced in March 2019. As earlier disclosed, Wisr had raised approximately $15 million after costs via a placement of 220 million ordinary shares.
It was announced the Company will issue shares for the placement in two tranches.
Capital raised from the placement provides balance sheet robustness, further investment in the Company’s proprietary technology platform and accelerated roll-out of strategic growth channels such as WisrCredit, Wisr App, Wisr@Work, and Wisr&Co.
Tranche 1, comprising of 134,767,857 fully-paid ordinary shares, has now been allotted and settled. The issue of shares in Tranche 2, comprising of 93,173,320 shares, will be issued pursuant to shareholder approval, to be sought at an Extraordinary General Meeting held on 10 May 2019.
Key appointments in the technology team
Wisr has strengthened its senior management expertise with a number of key roles, including the appointment of financial services technology veteran Jason Chisholm as Chief Technology Officer and Vinko Grgic to lead Wisr App.
Chisholm has almost 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry having played a senior role on key projects with Suncorp, CBA and Westpac. He was most recently Head of Architecture at Assembly Payments, which provides online payment platforms to marketplaces, banks and other financial institutions.
The Company also appointed Grgic to lead the recently launched Wisr App. Grgic was formerly the Head of Operations at Jayride, an ASX-listed airport transfer booking platform.
Financial wellness products: Wisr App and WisrCredit
Wisr App – a smartphone tool which links a user’s everyday transaction account, rounding-up purchases to the nearest dollar and automatically paying the funds off a nominated debt – was launched in March 2019.
As of the end March 2019, Wisr App had more than 13,500 downloads since becoming available in the iOS App Store – making it amongst the top ten ranked financial apps in the Australian store during the first month of launch.
Credit score comparison service WisrCredit also continued to see audience growth, with almost 25,000 active users – up from 16,000 at the beginning of the year. The Company has also begun to see customer migration from WisrCredit to its core personal loan product.
Industry recognition
In February 2019 Wisr won the Best Lending Innovation category at the Australian Lending Awards in Sydney.
The Australian Lending Awards are designed to recognise and celebrate the outstanding achievements of the Australian Mortgage and Lending industry.
Gerald Ferguson, Managing Director, APAC, RFi Group, said “RFi Group is delighted to congratulate Wisr in winning the Best Lending Innovation category, in what are the most highly contested awards in the Australian lending industry. Wisr’s entry and win reflect the company’s outstanding skills and achievements in a competitive and dynamic industry and they should be proud of their accomplishments this year.”
Wisr has also been shortlisted for four awards at the upcoming Australian Banking Innovation Awards, in the categories of Best Banking App, Best Financial Literacy and Betterment Initiative, Best Fintech Innovator and Most Innovative Challenger. The awards are due to be announced at a ceremony in Sydney on Wednesday 22nd May 2019.
