Wayflyer hits profitability, but will shutter influencer unit Peblo

Irish tech firm Wayflyer said it turned its first monthly profit in October, a milestone for the start-up hit by turbulence in the sector over the past year.

Yet the company also said it had decided to wind down influencer financing business Peblo, the start-up it bought in May last year in a deal set to be worth up to €10 million, to focus on its core products and business.

Wayflyer, which was founded in 2019, provides ecommerce stores with affordable unsecured loans to allow them to fund advertising and inventory in advance of selling items. It also offers detailed analytics to help clients improve their sales performance.

The company, which counts golfer Shane Lowry among its brand ambassadors, paid as much as €3.5 million upfront for Peblo, with the remainder of the purchase price due when the company hit certain milestones.

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A small number of jobs will be lost as a result of the wind down, Wayflyer said, with fewer than 15 jobs expected to go once it is complete.

The decision comes following a tough year for the company, that saw it lose cofounder Jack Pierse and slash 40 per cent of its global workforce — about 200 jobs — as it tried to cut costs and reduce cash burn. The company achieved a more than €1 billion valuation which is unicorn status in the tech world in early 2022, making it Ireland’s sixth such firm after it raised $150 million in funding.

“[The year] 2022 was difficult for us,” said Aiden Corbett, co-founder and chief executive of the company. “In January 2022, we raised a lot of money. At the time we didn’t have the same concerns over the economy, we expanded aggressively into the US and invested heavily. We didn’t really reap the rewards of that because at the end of the year, we had to conduct our lay-offs.”

Mr Corbett said the company had been aiming to cut costs and increase revenue with a view to achieving profitability for one or two months in 2023. The lay-offs played a role in cutting costs; also on the chopping block was a lease for a property in Atlanta, which the company has ended.

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The company said it had reduced its operating losses by 85 per cent in the past three months compared to the same period in 2022. Revenue, meanwhile, has increased 75 per cent year-to-date.

October is typically the busiest month of the year for Wayflyer. “It is the time that customers want cash the most, just before Black Friday and the Christmas period,” Mr Corbett said.

Wayflyer is now aiming to achieve profitability consistently, from the second half of the year, said Mr Corbett, with the company on track to achieve that.

It is now looking to the US for further growth. Demand for reliable funding solutions was starting to bounce back, particularly in the US, Mr Corbett said.

The company announced an off-balance sheet programme of $1 billion with Neuberger Berman in September and its renewed $300 million debt line from JP Morgan in June.

Wayflyer serves about 3,000 merchants globally.