Tech unicorn Wayflyer loses €22.8m in rapidly expanding business

Irish “unicorn” tech firm Wayflyer says it has enjoyed “substantial growth” in 2022 and has roughly doubled the numbers it employs.

The company has emerged as “the largest revenue-based finance operator in Europe” over the past year, according to a company spokeswoman. Wayflyer provides revenue-based financing and marketing analytics for online businesses.

The comments came as the company reported net losses of €22.28 million for last year due to expansion costs, a multiple of the €2.9 million in losses after tax in 2020.

The Irish business, founded by chief executive Aidan Corbett and Jack Pierse in September 2019, does not include the firm’s international revenues which account for about 95 per cent of all sales.

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Numbers employed at the Dublin-based company jumped more than fivefold – from 15 to 85 – and staff costs hit €9.4 million compared to €1.7 million the previous year.

The Irish-based firm’s turnover of €1.3 million was generated by providing services to other group companies

In February, the company became Ireland’s sixth unicorn, after raising $150 million in funding to achieve a $1.6 billion valuation. Earlier this year, it said it expected to advance up to $2.5 billion to ecommerce firms this year, up from a previous estimate of $1 billion.

Wayflyer is to publish the business’s consolidated accounts next year which will reflect the group performance for 2021.