The Laybuy Holdings Ltd (ASX: LBY) share price is storming higher on Thursday after the release of an update.
At the time of writing, the buy now pay later provider's shares are up 5.5% to $1.87.
What did Laybuy announce?
Ahead of its appearance at the Bell Potter Emerging Leaders Conference, Laybuy released an update on its revenue, gross merchant value (GMV), and net transaction margin (NTM) for the months of July and August.
According to the release, the Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) rival has continued its strong form over the last couple of months.
Laybuy's GMV growth in July and August was strong and at the end of the period had reached NZ$520 million on an annualised basis. This was a 161% increase on the prior corresponding period.
This was driven by solid growth in both customer and merchant numbers. At the end of August, Laybuy had 542,000 active customers on its platform. This was up 69,000 or 14.6% since the end of June.
It was a similar story for its merchant numbers, which reached 6,180 by 31 August. This was an increase of 508 or 9% over the two months.
Pleasingly, Laybuy also reported improvements in its bad debts.
The buy now pay later provider's defaults as a percentage of GMV reduced from 3.4% (for the 3 months to 30 June) down to 3.1% (for the 5 months to 31 August). This led to the company's NTM continuing its upward trajectory. It recorded a NTM of 1.5% for July and August, up from 0% in FY 2020.
What else did the company reveal?
In addition to its financial metrics, the company provided an update on its merchant pipeline.
It advised: "The pipeline of retailers to be onboarded is significant and continues to develop with a mixture of large "highly recognisable" retail brands and a broad range of SME merchants."
Shareholders will no doubt be hopeful that this underpins further GMV and customer growth in the coming months.
