Paymentus Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PAY) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

That said, we get pinged by a lot of investment banks, we get teasers, and if anything seems interesting as far as that’s accretive to the overall business and add shareholder value, we will definitely look at it and reach out to the board and give it a serious thought. But we are not seeking anything right now.I think we are heavily focused on executing and I think that’s where our capital allocation strategy lies.

Will Nance: Got it. Appreciate that. And then maybe just a question on some of those pipelines that you guys have mentioned several times. Could you guys maybe dive in a little bit on just the composition of the pipelines in terms of vertical mix and the size of the bellairs? It seems like it sounds like vertical mix contributed to maybe slightly better unit economics on the ones that were implemented this quarter. So just curious on if there’s any kind of notable observations you would make about the implementation pipeline that you see today?

Dushyant Sharma: Yes, well, that’s a very good question. Our pipeline composition, I would say is very similar to the way we see our backlog composition and which is very similar to the way we see our revenue composition as well. Said differently, our largest segment is utilities or vertical and that which is still more than 50% and the remaining 50% is made up of bunch of verticals, insurance being one, government being the other. And we are seeing a lot of these new verticals we are trying to enter into and we are very pleased with the diversification of that and we are seeing it across the board. In fact, our pipeline is giving us much more comfort for the outer periods as we think about our long-term plans for the company.

So overall, pipeline is strong, composition is great. I would say that we are seeing a good diversification on that mix and in terms of implementation, I’d like to cover as well. The implementation pace actually is getting better. In fact, as we saw in Q1, our revenues came in ahead of what we were expecting. So implementation pace is doing really well. I think the COVID fever is behind, definitely our business we see, and we are seeing the tailwind of that now. Catching up.

Operator: Our next question comes from Tien-Tsin Huang with the company JPMorgan. Tien-Tsin, your line is now open.

Tien-Tsin Huang: Yes, thanks a lot. It sounds like the repricing strategy is working quite well there. Is there more repricing across the book going forward? Have you addressed most of that relative to your plan. I’m just curious. I know you commented on revenue per transaction and better rates on or ARPU on new pillars, but how about the overall book?

Dushyant Sharma: Well, overall, I would say it has now become a part of our regular process repricing. It was discussed pretty much at length when the company was going through inflationary pressures and we were working with all the billers and we had to pass those increased costs to them. So it was kind of a separate process on its own. And I believe that was a pretty interesting topic in 2023 and even exiting 2022. But now the processes have streamlined so much that the repricing is now a part of our regular process. We review pricing, whether it’s due to inflation or due to margins or due to many other factors. So I think it’s a part of regular process. I would not call that as one off pricing activity anymore, but I hope that addresses the question. But at the same time, I’ll say we are kind of caught up in our process. And as you saw in Q1 itself, we saw some benefit of repricing, which is a part of internal initiatives, nothing to do with inflation.

Tien-Tsin Huang: Right, right. So the repricing has been addressed, and it’s part of your normal course now as you’re renewing and winning deals. I think I understand. It’s good to know. My second question was just on the. I heard. I know will asked about composition on your wins. You talked about strong bookings, substantial backlog. Is there any issue or concern around replenishing that pipeline and backlog? I know, Dushyant, you talked about that in the past. It sounds like there’s a lot of deals to still win. Just want to make sure that’s the case, given where you are in the calendar year?

Dushyant Sharma: Yes, we are feeling good about our pipeline. We are feeling good about the long-term prospects of the business. The demand remains strong, and we are seeing great momentum actually in the market.

Operator: Our next question comes from Andrew Bauch with the company Wells Fargo. Andrew, your line is now open.

Andrew Bauch: Hey, good evening and thanks for taking the question. I know it’s been hit on in prior questions, but I’m just trying to better understand the interplay here between, you know, the execution, you guys delivered, you know, four straight quarters of pretty consistent growth with, a more stable macro environment, potentially leading to better implementation times and conversations with that, replenishing that front book. So maybe you can just give us a sense on the two to three things that you’ve done over the last year that’s driven this consistent execution. And maybe if we’re able to kind of understand how much of the growth you’re seeing now is part of that catch up in demand?

Dushyant Sharma: Actually, I would say it is. It is not a catch up. Let me take the last part first. It is more like we are still catching up to the type of demand or type of execution we used to see prior to the pandemic. So after the pandemic, what has transpired is that we are back to the way the business used to be, where we were able to send our storytellers in front of our clients to educate the market on how they can improve their cost to serve and improve their customer experience using our platform and the ecosystem. And that is going well. As a result of that, we are also, you know, we are signing clients off various verticals. In addition to that, our partnership ecosystem has started to produce for us and bring us new deals, new verticals.