QuickFee shares are still climbing as the company releases operations update

Fintech payment company QuickFee (ASX:QFE) turned a few heads yesterday, climbing by 150 per cent on its first day of trade.

The company listed at 20c per share and closed at 50c, easily meeting its IPO goal to raise $13.5m.

Investors were clearly chomping at the bit to get a piece of the B2B lender, which provides an online portal for professional services firms in accounting and law to manage client payments.

Shares continued to find momentum in early trade today, climbing to 62.5c before easing back.

G’day USA

QuickFee’s portal helps professional services firms manage late payments by offering monthly instalments for clients to pay their bills. It also extends loans to finance the instalments, at a rate of 9.95 per cent over 12 months.

The service allows services firms to better manage their cash-flow, by taking on the amount of the bill up-front.

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The company made frequent references to its focus on building out US market share in its prospectus, where it said it had a first-mover advantage and was gaining some early traction. It said it plans to allocate around $1.5m of the funds raised to finance its US expansion.

One day after listing, QuickFee has released an operations update which shows it has signed up 618 professional services firms in Australia, and 236 in the US.

Unaudited figures to the end of June 2019 show the bulk of its transaction fees were derived from the US. The firm processed $US136.8m ($195.8m) from its US operations, up from $US48.4m in the year prior.

That marks a gain of 182 per cent, and in terms of dollar-value it exceeds the $28.3m processed in Australia (up from $10.5m in FY18).

Total lending in the Australian market was $42m in the 2019 financial year, compared to $8m in the US market.

To protect itself from credit risk, professional services firms grant QuickFee the “irrevocable right” to require them to purchase a client loan for any outstanding amounts in the event that clients default on an instalment payment.