Cash register closed: Till Payments changes hands for meagre sum
It’s game over for fintech Till Payments and its bigwig backers.
Street Talk understands Canadian payments processor Nuvei is set to buy the struggling payments processor – once one of Australia’s hottest start-ups, valued at $500 million – for $47 million.
This will wipe out equity holders – a who’s who of Australian equity capital markets and corporate Australia. Only Series D investors are expected to see any money again, the largest of whom is understood to be Theo Koundouris – managing director of Supabarn, a family-owned Canberra supermarket chain that is also a Till Payments customer.
You win some, you lose some: former Till Payments CEO Shadi Haddad and CTO Vinay Rao. James Brickwood
The payments company attracted a string of high-profile backers during happier times including Caledonia’s Will Vicars, pubs baron Bruce Mathieson, Ord Minnett boss Karl Morris, Paradice Investment Management’s David Paradice and a handful of senior bankers at Barrenjoey Capital Partners. Sources said several UBS employees (and some of their clients) invested when blocks baron George Kanaan was still in Chifley Tower. He’s since moved his talents to Barrenjoey as head of cash equities.
Till’s latest accounts paint a grim picture of the last few years. As reported by The Australian Financial Review, the company posted an after-tax loss of almost $141 million in financial year 2022. Revenues rose 253 per cent to $51.2 million, but expenses grew faster, widening the loss from $136 million recorded one year earlier.
The accounts showed Till had $36 million in cash, and had burnt through $55 million on day-to-day operations in 12 months. It was already cutting costs by around $8 million a year, but warned that there was “material uncertainty related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the entity’s ability to continue as a going concern”.
Till was founded in 2012 by Sydney-based Shadi Haddad. It processes payments for retailers, e-commerce groups, hospitality operators and transport and parking groups. It had been working with Credit Suisse’s James Disney towards an $800 million US float in 2023, telling investors it processed $US14 billion ($21.6 billion) in payments. At the time, sources said a sharemarket listing in the United States made more sense than the local bourse, given where Till’s underlying business was focused.
In January, Till laid off 120 staff and installed three new board members in a company-wide shake-up while also raising $70 million – finalised at a drastically lower valuation. At the time, management blamed inflationary pressures, coupled with a shrinking global economic picture. It banked $125 million from investors in 2021.
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