A non-executive director of Zebit (ASX:ZBT) has shelled out more than $1.15 million over the past week to increase her stake in the company.

Interestingly, the Zebit share price has risen by 18 per cent since the announcement was made.

Miriam Rivera, who was appointed non-executive director at Zebit last October, invested in the shares through the Venture Capital fund Ulu Ventures. Rivera herself is the cofounder and managing director of Ulu, an early seed venture fund based in Palo Alto, California.

The fund was already one of the major shareholders of Zebit, owning around 6.5 per cent of Zebit’s shares before the latest trades. It’s currently Zebit’s fifth biggest shareholder.

It’s definitely a good sign to see insiders purchasing shares in their own company. Not only does it bring comfort to the market, it might point to something that might be brewing. Well, that’s speculation.

In general, though, insiders’ actions are worth watching, and because of that, Stockhead tracks movements in director trades every other week.
 

Zebit – BNPL with a difference

Zebit has a slightly different take to other BNPLs in the market. It actually offers instalment payment plans that charge no interest or fees.

Customers pay between 14.5% to 35% of the purchase cost upfront, with the remaining portion being financed in equal instalments over a six-month period, based on payment frequency. The company charges no interest on these instalments.

It’s able to fund this by the full margins it makes selling items on its own online marketplace, where it sources goods at wholesale and sells them at retail prices.

The company said this model is ripe to disrupt the 120 million US consumers who are underserved by mainstream credit – citing that 74 per cent of the US population live from paycheque to paycheque, and 47 per cent have impaired credit score.

“We call ourselves the Amazon for the under-served, and we’re finding our service is increasingly in demand,” says CEO Mark Schneider.
 

Breakeven is near

In its latest financials, Zebit has smashed its prospectus forecast, posting a full year revenue of US$87.7 million, which beat the forecast by 6.7 per cent.

Even though net loss came in at US$7.4 million, it was also still ahead of its prospectus forecast of $11 million loss.

Interestingly, almost 80% of the revenue generated was from repeat business, with the average monthly spend of $US410, 9.3% higher than prospectus forecast.

The company is well funded, increasing its lending facility to US$35 million in a recent deal struck with Bastion Consumer Funding.

With these numbers, Zebit is well placed to fulfil its prospectus pitch to break even within 18 months of listing. Analysts are anticipating the company to incur a final loss in 2022, before generating positive profits beyond.

Zebit debuted at $1.58 in October, and is now trading at $1.35 a share.
 

Zebit share price today:


 

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Zebit is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.