U.S.-based buy now pay later fintech Affirm announced on Tuesday the financial results of its fiscal 2021 third quarter, which ended on March 31, 2021. According to Max Levchin, Founder and CEO of Affirm, the company’s third-quarter results reflect on the continuous progress towards its goal of becoming the most valuable and transparent financial network for consumers as well as merchants.
“During the period, we more than doubled the number of merchants on our platform, accelerated GMV growth to 83%, and increased active consumers by 60% year-over-year.”
Third Quarter of Fiscal Year 2021 Operating Highlights include:
- Gross merchandise volume (GMV) for the third quarter of fiscal 2021 was $2.3 billion, an increase of 83%, or 100% excluding Peloton, compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2020
- Active merchants more than doubled to nearly 12,000 from March 31, 2020 to March 31, 2021
- Active consumers grew 60% to 5.4 million from March 31, 2020 to March 31, 2021
- Transactions per active consumer were approximately 2.3 as of March 31, 2021, an increase of 10% when compared to March 31, 2020
Third Quarter of Fiscal Year 2021 Financial Highlights include:
- Total revenue was $230.7 million, a 67% increase when compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2020, driven primarily by increases in network revenue and interest income, related to growth in GMV and loans held for investment, respectively. Total revenue includes a $3.5 million reduction to revenue recorded in relation to the estimated financial impact of Peloton’s voluntary recall of its Tread+ and Tread products
- Total revenue less transaction costs1 was $133.7 million, compared to $9.3 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2020, primarily as a result of the strong revenue growth; third quarter of fiscal 2021 transaction costs included an $83.3 million year-over-year decrease in provision for credit losses driven by an improved credit outlook
- Operating loss was $169.5 million compared to $81.5 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2020, and includes a $131.8 million increase in stock-based compensation following our January 2021 initial public offering
- Adjusted operating income for the third quarter of fiscal 2021 was $4.9 million, compared to the adjusted operating loss of $70.7 million reported in the third quarter of fiscal 2020
- Net loss for the third quarter of fiscal 2021 was $247.2 million compared to $85.6 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2020, and includes the increase in stock-based compensation following the IPO as well as a $78.5 million adjustment to reflect the change in fair value of the contingent consideration liability associated with our acquisition of PayBright Inc., driven by changes in the value of our common stock
Affirm also reported that upon exiting the third quarter, it began to see GMV growth accelerate in categories with pent-up demand, such as Travel and Ticketing, which grew by more than 50% from the third quarter of fiscal 2020 and nearly tripled from the second quarter of fiscal 2021. Last month, Affirm began to scale its onboarding of merchants related to its partnerships with Shopify. In regards to upcoming quarter predictions, Levchin added:
“We expect this number to significantly increase as we move towards general availability in June. Looking ahead, we believe the strengthening health of the consumer, Affirm’s deep and diverse merchant partnerships, and our unrivaled technology will position us to capture a substantial share of our expanding market opportunities. We are just getting started and we look forward to demonstrating the full power of Affirm as the economy continues to reopen.”
As previously reported, Affirm is a point of sale credit provider that is currently working with more than 5,000 merchants, including Article, Joybird, West Elm, and Shopify. The company’s goal is to provide shoppers with an alternative to expensive credit cards at the point of sale, giving them the flexibility to buy now and make simple monthly payments for their purchases. Affirm reported it has raised more than $1.3 billion from investors to date.
The company recently announced it has acquired Returnly, online return experiences, and post-purchase payments platform, for approximately $300 million. Affirm completed the acquisition on May 1, 2021. Full third-quarter financial results can be found here.