The Humm Group Ltd (ASX: HUM) share price is up in early trading after revealing a new buy now, pay later product for small businesses.
Humm is the business that used to be called FlexiGroup. Not only does it offer buy now, pay later but it also has revolving credit and small and medium enterprise (SME) finance.
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What is Humm's new BNPL product?
Humm has officially launched Hummpro, which it's calling 'business now pay later'.
The product has been designed to meet the flexible cashflow needs of SMEs across Australia and New Zealand. Humm wants to help SMEs as they invest and grow with trading conditions returning to pre-COVID-19 levels.
The company said that Hummpro suits business owners that want to track their cash flow in one place. Customers can be approved in minutes and can spend seconds later.
Hummpro can be used anywhere that Mastercard is accepted. That means it can be used online, in store and to pay supplier invoices. Management pitched this as a useful feature because other 'business now pay later' products require that suppliers are onboarded and integrated into their network to accept payments.
All types of business customers will be able to use this product, including sole traders, companies, partnerships and trusts.
Humm will use its experience with responsible credit decisioning in its commercial business and consumer-focused experiences in the consumer space as it looks for growth opportunities with this new product.
CEO commentary
Humm CEO Rebecca James talked up the new product's potential to meet sizeable SME needs:
Our research shows that SMEs across Australia and New Zealand are dissatisfied with their traditional credit card and overdraft solutions, so we've built a product that removes the hoops they normally have to jump through to access finance. With our quick approval and spend process, and our pay, pause and plan features, we're providing small business owners with the ultimate control to manage their cashflow.
Close to three million SMEs contribute substantially to GDP across Australia and New Zealand; as the economy starts to rebuild – due in no small part to this critical sector – we see hummpro as the perfect option, providing quick and flexible access to capital to help small business owners invest in a stable future.
Humm FY21 profit expectations
A few weeks ago humm announced that it's expecting to report cash net profit after tax of $43.4 million, up 25.8% compared to the prior corresponding period.
This was helped significantly by operating expenses falling 11.1% to $87.2 million and the loan impairment expense of $25 million being down 35.3% year on year.
Humm is expected to announce its half-year result on 24 February 2021.
