Gefen continues along a strong growth trajectory – a la the promise of its prospectus – as the recent ASX-lister rapidly raises the number of users on its platform.
Gefen International (ASX:GFN) continues to progress its growth strategy in the December quarter in line with the IPO prospectus, gaining new customers and generating solid revenue growth.
The agents network tech play increased the number of end customers using its Gefen Arena platform by 66% QoQ (quarter-on-quarter) to almost 300k.
Agents and events boom
Agents using the Arena platform grew 17% to 2,210, while events recorded on the Gefen platform were up 78% QoQ to more than 1 billion.
The company is generating solid growth in revenue streams from transactional agent solutions fees, with cash receipts from customers of US$2.93 million, up 7.7% QoQ.
“The December quarter was an important one for Gefen, as we were able to win and onboard strategic agent networks,” commented Orni Daniel, Gefen co-founder and co-CEO.
“These contract wins have a long onboarding process due to their size and potential, of which we have started collecting revenues from early in January 2022,” he added.
Digitally transforming global agent-based organisations
Gefen has developed a disruptive platform for regulation-heavy industries such as finance and insurance, in which agents mediate the selling of complex products between carriers and customers.
The Arena platform was specifically built to disrupt this traditional ecosystem, providing a highly compliant platform that connects advisors, carriers, and consumers within a network, and automates the way they interact.
It effectively enables local as well as global enterprises and agent-hubs to transform, grow and automate their entire distribution networks.
Although the platform can be used across a number of verticals, the company’s current and main focus is on the finance and insurance industries.
Big market, high margins
The business operates high gross margins of over 80%, and has just completed the onboarding of five midsize agent networks which are expected to have a full impact on revenue from 2022 onwards.
The potential addressable market is also huge, with the penetration for SaaS software in the global insurance and finance industries estimated at US$358 billion in 2020, and expected to grow to US$462 billion by next year.
During the quarter, Gefen continued to focus on the growth of Arena, hitting targets across the platform’s key metrics.
Ongoing improvements are being carried out on the platform, with the release of new features being made in cycles of two weeks.
Whatsapp on opportunities
A new Whatsapp integration, improvements to the GQL distribution tool, as well as new ‘Open Insurance’ data integration capabilities for prospecting and existing customers were some of the improvements made.
“In line with our intention to increase our product and services offering, we have continued adding important features and modules which continue to reduce the labor work done by the agents and advisors,” Daniel said.
“This will open up more revenue opportunities for the agents, as well as improving their top line and the share of wallet of the customers,” he added.
Well funded to execute strategy
Gefen commenced trading on the ASX in July 2021, following an oversubscribed IPO which raised $25 million.
The IPO was underpinned by a high-quality shareholder base, which included institutional and retail investors along with the strong support of existing Gefen shareholders including Regal Funds Management, Ellerston Capital and Perennial.
Gefen says that part of the funds will be used for potential acquisition targets, which the company has identified and will update to the market in due course.
These acquisitions are expected to support Gefen’s strategy to grow its independent agents network, as stated in its prospectus.
The company’s leadership team was given a boost in the quarter with the appointment of Sammy Bercovich as Head of Operations. Bercovich served as Deputy CEO and CIO at Israel’s leading Hachshara Insurance Company prior to joining Gefen.
Gefen is fully funded to execute its growth strategy, with US$12.78 million in cash and short-term deposits as of December 31, 2021.
“We’re confident about our execution plans for 2022 which have started strong, and excited about our growth initiatives that will deliver significant value to our shareholders in the quarters ahead,” Daniel said.
This article was developed in collaboration with Gefen International, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.