PYMNTS-MonitorEdge-May-2024

Opendoor Leads Decliners as FinTech IPO Index Sheds 4.4%

The FinTech IPO Index was down 4.4% heading into the last few trading days of February.

And as detailed earlier in the week, even though the group is still up year to date — roughly 20% — bit by bit, the volatility has been eating at those gains. There’s still a long way to go before the entire pantheon gets to break even, as you’ll see from the chart at the end of this piece, which details returns since each company’s respective IPO through the close of business Thursday.

Opendoor’s shares sank 22% through the past five sessions headed into its fourth-quarter results. Thursday night, the company reported a 25% drop in sales year over year in the most recent quarter. The company’s  earnings materials show that 7,512 total homes were sold via that company’s platform, down 23% versus the same period in the prior year. And the net loss widened to $399 million in the most recent period, compared to $191 million the previous year.  

A Look to Better Days in the Housing Market

But management struck an optimistic tone in its investor letter, noting that it has prioritized “selling those homes we made offers on between March and June of last year … before the housing market reset.” By year-end, Opendoor said, it had sold through or was in contract on 66% of that cohort, a tally it sees reaching 85% at the end of the current quarter.

Toast logged a 20% loss through the week in the wake of earnings that were reported earlier in the month. The company also announced that it acquired digital drive-thru signage company Delphi Display Systems.

OneConnect was 11.5% lower in a week that saw an announcement where PowerSchool, which provides cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America, Thursday (Feb. 23) announced the expansion of its Global channel partner initiative, the PowerPartner Program, with OneConnect becoming the program’s first channel partner in Africa.

Nuvei slipped 10.8%, a downdraft that came in tandem with the news that its $1.3 billion acquisition of payment platform Paya is complete. As reported, Paya processed $50 billion in payment volume last year. 

Paya, according to Nuvei, also operates in “high growth” verticals like healthcare, nonprofit, government, utilities and a range of other B2B markets.

MoneyLion said this week that it is offering eligible MoneyLion users free tax filing services through its new partnership with Column Tax, a personal income tax software company. Shares slid 8.7% across the past week.

Payoneer said that one of its units has received an electronic money license. As reported, Payoneer Payment Services UK, was granted the license from the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The license enables digital financial institutions to operate in the U.K. The firm’s new U.K. license joins the licenses or approvals that Payoneer already holds in the United States, Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia and India. The shares were down 2.5% through the past five days.

Huize was among the few gainers in the week, adding 22.8%. The company said it had partnered with Hongkang Life Insurance Co., Ltd. — a new whole life insurance product offering in the “Jin Man Yi Zu” series. The companies said in a release that offers an option of converting the policy between single and joint insurance, providing flexibility to meet customers’ pension planning needs.

PYMNTS-MonitorEdge-May-2024