During the first quarter of 2021, Montréal-based payment processing company Nuvei pulled in revenue of about $150 million USD, an 80 percent increase year-over-year compared to 2020, when it earned just over $83 million.
The revenue total also represented a nearly 30 percent quarterly increase compared to the $116 million Nuvei earned in the fourth quarter of 2020, during which the company saw its strongest period of growth to date. The first quarter of 2021 marks the third quarterly earnings report since Nuvei went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) in September, raising $833 million.
Nuvei said it beat its anticipated total volume, revenue, and adjusted EBITDA outlooks.
Nuvei, which trades on the TSX under the symbol ‘NVEI,’ said its latest financial results were driven by “volume growth from current merchant customers and the acceleration of new client wins.”
According to Nuvei, new e-commerce business more than tripled during the first quarter of 2021 compared to the first quarter of 2020, which Nuvei attributed to its investment in its direct distribution channel.
“Our focus on building leading-edge solutions to facilitate and help our clients best connect with their clients continued during the first quarter as we expanded our reach with new markets, added multiple alternative payment methods and introduced new capabilities like supporting payment in cryptocurrencies,” said Philip Fayer, Nuvei’s chair and CEO.
Founded by Fayer in 2003, Nuvei offers payment solutions to retail merchants and tech and distribution companies. The company’s clients span Canada, the United States, Europe, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region.
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In the first quarter of 2021, the company said it beat its anticipated total volume, revenue, and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) outlooks. According to Nuvei, the company’s total volume (the total dollar value of transactions processed by Nuvei merchants) grew by 132 percent year-over-year, rising from $8.9 billion to $20.6 billion. Nuvei said e-commerce accounted for 87 percent of that total.
Nuvei generated a net income of nearly $28 million, a significant improvement compared to the net loss of just over $62 million it saw in the first quarter of 2020. This also marked an increase of nearly $5 million compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, when Nuvei saw a profit of almost $23 million. The company’s adjusted EBITDA increased 97 percent year-over-year, rising to $65.5 million.
Some notable moments from Q1 2021 saw Nuvei enter into several new partnerships, add 15 new alternative payment methods since the end of 2020, and implement pay-in and payout support for 40 cryptocurrencies.
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Last week, Nuvei announced plans to acquire Israeli cryptocurrency startup Simplex in an all-cash deal totalling $250 million. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2021.
Earlier this year, the company reached a definitive agreement to acquire United States-based gaming payments provider Mazooma for up to $315 million plus additional considerations. It expects that deal to close during the second quarter of 2021. Key Nuvei stakeholders also recently sold $494 million shares in a secondary deal.
Picture of Nuvei’s chairman and CEO Philip Fayer, from Nuvei