As more of the global population transitions towards a cashless society, fintech company Novatti Group’s (ASX: NOV) newest digital payments business – a merchant acquiring division, is now live, in what was a record-breaking September quarter for the company.

The merchant acquiring business has been on Novatti’s agenda for the past 12 months and is in response to the rising number of businesses taking instant payments online. Through Novatti’s merchant acquiring service, eCommerce businesses are able to accept customer payments through credit cards or debit cards instantly, as well as mediums such as Alipay and WeChat Pay with Novatti taking a small fee along the way.

While the acquiring service is live and generating revenue, it was just one digital payments division within Novatti that contributed to the record-breaking sales revenue.

“The September quarter saw Novatti take another leap forward on its growth journey. Our existing business operations continue to generate strong growth, with quarterly sales revenue of $5.3m, up 49% year-on-year and breaking through the $5m mark for the first time,” said Novatti Managing Director, Peter Cook. 

“We have expanded our presence in the EU market with the launch of Verv, providing new payment services and we expanded our partnership with Ripple into Thailand, having launched in the Philippines earlier in the year. 

“It’s been an incredibly busy quarter but we remain absolutely focused on fulfilling our growth strategy going forward to deliver long-term growth for our shareholders.” 

What wasn’t included in the September quarter however, is the revenue and earnings accretion secured by Novatti following their recent $8.4m acquisition of ATX – a leading digital payments company in Malaysia. 

From their network of more than 31,000 payment points and recharge locations, ATX generated $3.0m revenue and $0.6m EBITDA in FY21 and has been recognised as a Top 50 startup in South East Asia. Upon settlement of the ATX acquisition, Novatti intends to expand ATX further through South East Asia where new services will be introduced by leveraging Novatti’s existing technology stack and financial service licences. 

Driving Novatti’s business growth are its people. These are the people that have evolved Novatti from its early days of cash vouchers that could be used for online purchases to become an all-encompassing digital payments ecosystem. Restrictions on international movements through the pandemic have been well published as hugely restrictive on tech companies seeking talent but Novatti has managed to double its headcount to 128 employees over the past 12 months. 

That headcount may soon increase even further with Novatti expected to secure their Australian banking licence in the coming months which will enable the launch of their neobank. An E-Money Issuing licence application is also pending in Europe which would enable Novatti to issue a range of financial products across the European Union.