@The Stig We are talking about two different areas of the...

@The Stig

We are talking about two different areas of the business. The onboarding for merchants for BNPL is an intensive exercise requiring human to human training (at least that's the route IOU have taken). Thinking about it, human to human is actually a nice touch because it leaves a lasting impression. Part of my business is meeting with clients face to face when pitching a proposal and I tell you what, I close far more sales this way than if I just sent a document. This is where the staff numbers will have an impact. More people means more onboarding. If you look at other BNPL, they ramp up staff as well.

Infrastructure upgrade on the other hand is a one and done type scenario. I'd speculate that the transition/upgrade they've just undertaken was to a cloud based solution which is auto-scalable. That means they can increase resources without the need to go offline. It would scale up and down as required and the cost would be in compute time rather than a fixed fee.

At this stage of the growth cycle it's understandable that staff costs outweigh transaction profit. As more merchants are onboarded this ratio will start to shift. The fact that we saw staff numbers increase so much is a good sign that the processes are now in place and working.

This is the difficulty of business. Things can take time before profit comes through. It's the main reason many businesses fail. You have to think of it like a plane taking off. The pilot will put the plane in full throttle to be able to defy gravity allowing the plane to take off. Once the plane has reached peak altitude only then will the pilot ease the throttle.