Payments challenger Adyen post strong growth following June IPO

In its first earnings release since going public in June, payments firm Adyen is proving it can live up to the hype.

After pricing its shares at €240 each ahead of the launch, it opened for trading on June 13 on Amsterdam’s Euronext exchange at €400 a share. With such a leap, a lot would have been expected from the firm, and it certainly delivered.

For the first six months of 2018, Adyen generated €156 million in total revenue, up 67.3% year-on-year, processing more than €70 billion of transactions, and collecting €48.2 million in net income up 74.6% year-on-year. Investors will certainly be pleased with growth at the company which counts the likes of Uber, Spotify and Cathay Pacific as customers.

Europe is still the major earner for the company, accounting for more than half of the processed transactions and roughly 65% of net revenue, though growth in other regions was incredibly healthy. Asia Pacific was a significant boost for the business, 147.5%, though the North American region was also incredibly positive, 142.9%.

“In the first half of the year we saw a continuation of the transformation of commerce, leading to an increased merchant focus on accepting payments across channels and geographies,” the firm said in a letter to shareholders. “This trend, coupled with changing shopper behaviour, the rise of mobile payment methods, and the increasing pressure on retailers’ operations, highlighted the benefits of our single platform, and consequently driven significant growth in the first half of 2018.”

The success has been attributed not only to doing what it does traditionally very well, but also branching out into new verticals such as hospitality, restaurant chains and supermarkets. While these might be different environments, all are experiencing the same increase in demand for mobile payment from customers.

Another key aspect of growth here seems to be the single platform. Many businesses around the world will use different payment solutions dependent on the environment, some of which will be legacy systems. The complications come with marrying the data to customers across the different platforms when trying to generate some sort of business insight from the data. A single platform, encompassing both online and offline transactions, allows the formation of data sets which can be used to inform future business decisions.

“Through our single platform, we provide a holistic view of payments, regardless of sales channel, delivering unique shopper insights while combating fraud and improving payment authorization rates,” the firm states.

While it all looks positive right now, another statistic which will keep investors happy is the recruitment efforts. Over the first six months, staff head count went up almost 40%, with 47.3% of these recruits taking up tech roles. While bolstering the sales team is certainly a positive move, such a focus on continuing the development of the platform will certainly add to the generated momentum.