Repay Holdings Corp Q1 FY2021 Earnings Call

Greetings, and welcome to today's earnings conference call being hosted by REPAY. With us today are John Morris, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer; and Tim Murphy, Chief Financial Officer. During this call, we will be making forward-looking statements about our beliefs and estimates regarding future events and results. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those set forth in the SEC filing related to today's results and in our most recent Form 10-K filed with the SEC. Actual results might differ materially from any forward-looking statements that we may make today. The forward-looking statements speak only as of today, and we do not assume any obligation or intent to update them, except as required by law. In an effort to provide additional information to investors, today's discussion will also include references to certain non-GAAP financial measures. An explanation of these non-GAAP financial measures, as well as a reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the newest GAAP financial measures, can be found in our earnings release and earnings supplement, each of which are available on the company's IR site. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Morris. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. On today's call, I wanted to open with an update on our business for the first quarter, followed by a review of how we're executing on our growth strategy, including discussing the acquisition of BillingTree, which we also announced today. I'll then turn it over to Tim to discuss our first quarter in more detail and thoughts on the remainder of 2021. We are pleased with our performance in the quarter with card payment volume growth of 20%, total revenue growth of 20%, gross profit growth of 22%, and adjusted EBITDA growth of 18%. These strong results were experienced across all of our businesses. On the loan repayment side, auto sales continue to be strong. This, coupled with the industry tailwind to digital payments and a large underpenetrated TAM, positions auto as one of the fastest-growing parts of our business. Our mortgage servicing business also performed very well in the quarter due to increased home buying and refinancing activity. And while we are monitoring the mortgage origination market, we are focused on processing a fairly specific type of transaction within mortgage. So we believe there will continue to be a need for our technology in any macro environment. During the quarter, we went live with two of the top ten mortgage servicers and a top ten credit union on our LIFT Payment IQ platform, our proprietary platform that streamlines and integrates payments and messaging for a seamless experience. We also added a top ten mortgage servicer to the STX Advisory Board. As a reminder, the STX Advisory Board's goal is to improve and standardize payment flow, eliminate errors, reduce delinquencies and create a better experience for borrowers. Finally, we also recently completed additional real-time integration activities with Ellie Mae, continuing to add customers through this partnership. On the personal loan side, volumes have been strong thus far in 2021. While we expected a seasonal slowdown in Q2 following tax refund and recent stimulus, we still see positive momentum through early May. Our Instant Funding product continues to experience significant adoption, with recent months showing record loan funding amounts. Our B2B business also showed strength during the quarter. We now have approximately 50 total B2B software integrations. And on the AP side, we've grown our supplier network to over 71,000, which is up 18% quarter-over-quarter. We recently announced that we became a participant in the CDK Global Partner Program. In connection with this partnership, we joined a marketplace of applications and integrations that CDK, a leading enabler of end-to-end automotive commerce, developed to help nationwide automotive dealers succeed. Through the integration, thousands of automotive dealers will have the ability to automate electronic AP payments to various vendors and suppliers based on specific invoice data within the CDK system. We recently signed an agreement to process electronic payables for the public school district of a top 50 U.S. city. Additionally, we are now processing payables for the largest in-room hospitality technology provider to global hospitality brands. Lastly, our TriSource processing business has been performing very nicely as restrictions lift throughout the country. We have several processing ISOs showing strong growth recently with additional customers in the contracting phase. We made solid progress against all our key growth strategies in the first quarter. Sales, technology, and product are the three areas of focus right now. On the sales side, we've had some great client wins in the quarter driven by our direct sales force, to which we continue to add talent. We recently hired three senior-level sales leaders with decades of combined payment experience. ISV integrations also continued to be a strong growth channel for us. During the quarter, we added eight new integrations, bringing our total to 132 as of March 31. We added 15 credit union customers in the quarter, which brings us to 58, representing approximately 635,000 collective members. We also continue to grow existing relationships and add new names to our Buy Now Pay Later pipeline. We understand retail installment sales and believe our payment technology is a great asset for many of the companies in this space. We've also made progress in product and technology sides. Last quarter, we announced that we recently opened a software development office in Ireland in partnership with a local firm called Protego. We've already hired over 20 software development-related staff, and they have hit the ground running. We have a lot of technology and product initiatives on our road map and many different verticals to attack, and we felt this partnership was a great way to quickly get additional resources and throughput. More recently, we have been finalizing a partnership with Paysafe to enable merchants to accept electronic cash payments. This partnership will allow consumers to have access to approximately 60,000 retail locations to make cash payments to merchants on the REPAY platform, with transactions supported in real-time. It will add even greater convenience to payers and expand the capabilities of lenders and other merchant types to meet consumer payment preferences. Now let's move on to M&A, which continues to be an important incremental growth driver for our company. This evening, we announced the acquisition of BillingTree. This is a very exciting announcement as it's REPAY's largest and most important transaction to date. We have evaluated hundreds of attractive acquisition candidates over the years, and we believe that BillingTree has the best combination of technology, distribution, talent, and scale to complement our company. BillingTree is a leading provider of omnichannel, integrated payment solutions in biller direct verticals. We posted a separate presentation to highlight the transaction on our Investor Relations site. BillingTree has two main products: CareView, which is the healthcare payments and software platform, streamlines patient communication, promotes patient engagement, and allows customers to accept all forms of payments, including FSA, HSA, and Flex Card. Next, Payrazr, which offers an omnichannel platform that allows customers to accept and reconcile payments using the medium of their choice. BillingTree enhances our position in large and attractive growth markets such as healthcare, credit unions, accounts receivable management, and energy verticals. BillingTree's verticals provide them with access to an estimated card payment volume opportunity of $700 billion. Addressable card payment volume in BillingTree's core end markets has experienced favorable tailwinds as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, accelerating the paper-to-digital payment shift within BillingTree's biller direct verticals. BillingTree meaningfully expands our scale, contributing over $4.4 billion in card payment volumes, $60 million in revenue, and $26 million in EBITDA before synergies pro forma for the full year 2021. BillingTree serves over 1,650 clients, including over 120 credit unions. They have customers across multiple attractive end markets with industry-leading retention metrics. Pro forma for the full year impact of the BillingTree acquisition, we expect to have over $22 billion in card payment volumes, over $245 million in revenue, and over $105 million in adjusted EBITDA and over 175 ISVs. The BillingTree acquisition will also strengthen our existing product suite of deeply integrated, custom-tailored payment and software solutions for enterprise customers in healthcare, credit unions, and the ARM industry. Their solutions are tightly integrated with over 50 software platforms, and the acquisition is expected to expand our software partner integrations to 175. Additionally, BillingTree also has a highly recurring revenue model with 110% average net volume retention and strong margins. We expect the transaction to be accretive to adjusted EPS in 2021 before synergies and anticipate further shareholder value creation from synergy opportunities as a combined company. The scale, capabilities, and infrastructure of the combined platform represent significant opportunities for cost savings and increased efficiencies. As a result of processing cost reductions and operational expense rationalization, we expect to realize annualized synergies of approximately $5 million. We are incredibly excited about this highly strategic acquisition, having delivered on the promise we made to our shareholders earlier this year when we raised significant proceeds to pursue M&A. We will continue to evaluate attractive M&A prospects, maintain a very active pipeline of additional opportunities, and expect that there will continue to be mid-market consolidation across the payments industry. With that, I'll turn it over to Tim to discuss the financials in greater detail.

Thank you, John. Now let's move on to our Q1 financial results before I review our revised financial guidance for 2021. As John mentioned, in the first quarter, REPAY delivered strong results across all of our key metrics. Card payment volume was $4.6 billion, an increase of 20% over the prior year's first quarter. Total revenue was $47.5 million, an increase of 20% over the prior year's first quarter. Ventanex, cPayPlus, and CPS contributed approximately $4.9 million of incremental revenue during the first quarter. Moving on to expenses in the quarter. Other cost of services were $12.5 million compared to $10.8 million in the first quarter of 2020. The incremental other cost of services from Ventanex, cPayPlus, and CPS were $1.7 million for Q1. Gross profit was $35 million, an increase of 22% over the prior year's first quarter. On an organic basis, we saw gross profit growth of 11% compared to the first quarter of 2020. This organic growth was primarily driven by strength across our loan repayment verticals as well as better-than-expected performance in our TriSource back-end processing business. SG&A was $23.4 million compared to $18.2 million in the first quarter of 2020. First quarter net loss was $18 million compared to a net loss of $13.2 million in the first quarter of 2020. First quarter adjusted net income was $15.1 million or $0.18 per share. Lastly, first quarter adjusted EBITDA was $20.5 million, an increase of 18% over the prior year first quarter. First quarter adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of total revenue was 43% compared to 44% in the prior year's first quarter. This increase in adjusted EBITDA resulted from organic growth and contributions from acquired businesses as well as continued focus on cost management. As John mentioned, today we announced the acquisition of BillingTree for $503 million, consisting of $275 million in cash, which will be financed with cash on hand, and $228 million in stock. This will be our largest acquisition to date. We also anticipate a tax benefit of approximately $20 million. This deal will be immediately accretive to earnings before synergies and is a great example of why we chose to access the capital markets in January. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the second quarter of 2021, subject to certain customary closing conditions. Combined net leverage is expected to be approximately 2.9x on a post-transaction basis, a very comfortable level, which will allow us to continue to fund both organic and inorganic opportunities. As of April 30, pro forma for BillingTree, we will have $118 million of cash on the balance sheet and access to $125 million of undrawn revolver capacity for a total liquidity amount of $243 million. As of April 30, pro forma for BillingTree, we will have approximately 98.4 million shares outstanding on a fully diluted basis. Finally, moving on to our outlook for 2021. Due to the strong results we've experienced across all of our businesses year-to-date, coupled with our current momentum that will drive further acceleration in the second half of this year, we are updating our outlook for 2021, excluding BillingTree. We are now expecting volume to be between $17.7 billion and $18.2 billion; total revenue to be between $180 million and $190 million; gross profit to be between $135 million and $141 million; and lastly, adjusted EBITDA to be between $76 million and $81 million. Now including the impact of BillingTree, which we assume will close on July 1, we expect the following for 2021: volume to be between $19.9 billion and $20.4 billion; total revenue to be between $210 million and $220 million; gross profit to be between $159 million and $165 million; and lastly, adjusted EBITDA to be between $91 million and $96 million. Please note, this includes approximately $2 million of expected pro forma synergies for the final six months of 2021. As with prior quarters, this range assumes no further unforeseen COVID-related impacts, which could create substantial economic duress during the year. We are pleased to welcome BillingTree to the REPAY family and look forward to an exciting remainder of 2021, along with accelerated growth in the outer years. I'll now turn the call back over to the operator to take your questions.

Our first question is from Tim Chiodo with Credit Suisse.

I wanted to dig into some of the client relationships that came over with BillingTree and also the ISVs. So I saw over 1,600 clients and 50 ISVs. Maybe you could just talk a little bit about how penetrated those are relative to maybe the existing REPAY base of ISVs and merchants? How much runway is there? Was there any overlap? Is that 50 a net number? Is that a gross number? Any extra context there would be really helpful.

Sure. This is Tim. Yes. So we are definitely excited about their software relationships. They have them across all of these verticals, health care, credit unions, ARM, and energy. The 50 number, there is probably a few overlaps there. We noted in the earnings supplement, I think it's maybe in the mid-40s, if you exclude the overlap. And we're getting access to customers and some very high-quality ISVs in these end markets. We think there's still a lot of penetration left. We think they're pretty underpenetrated in the existing relationships similar to our situation. And so just like we've put out recently, we're further penetrating those relationships. We'll be doing something similar with BillingTree. So that's a big opportunity for us, and we like the fact that they go to market in a very similar way to us in terms of an integrated omnichannel experience. So that was a big part of our thesis here, is just that integrated approach and getting access to a lot of different merchants within these end markets.

A brief follow-up related to synergies. Is there a possibility of cross-selling some of the B2B accounts payable solutions, like CPS and cPayPlus, to the current base of merchants and/or ISVs?

Yes. This is John. We do think there's a great opportunity there. Obviously, we see some opportunity with our existing B2B platform with our CPP and CPS. Our CPS platform already has several opportunities that it uses already for the health care overall, specifically hospitals, etc. As you can see, with BillingTree, it has health care in its current offering. And so we do think there's an opportunity to cross-sell on both sides of that. We're still early on in evaluating some of our needs there, but we think that does give us a great opportunity. So even across all the other verticals, we think there's also an opportunity to do some things on the B2B side as we add that into some of our integrated offerings.

And our next question is from Craig Maurer with Autonomous Research.

So one unrelated to the deal, which is you discussed auto sales continuing to be strong and it's the fastest-growing piece of REPAY. So can you discuss how that's weighing on take rate? Second, regarding the deal, can you discuss if there are any lockups on the 10% that Parthenon Capital will own following the transaction?

Yes. To the first question, yes, auto continues to be really strong, Craig, growing 20%, 25% plus as it has been. And I'd say that the take rate impact is not too material. As you can see, the take rate this quarter was similar to prior quarters, and we expect that to continue. So I don't think that's going to be a material impact, and we also get just a lot more volume in that end market. And so that flows through to gross profit. And so in terms of lockup, there'll be a 6-month lockup with Parthenon. And so that's pretty straightforward.

And our next question is from Sanjay Sakhrani with KBW.

Congrats on the deal. I guess first question just on the core trend. Was wondering if you could just maybe call out anything specific that you saw during the quarter leading you to be more optimistic for the back part of the year. And any specific impacts related to stimulus?

Yes. So organic growth in the first quarter was stronger than we anticipated, 11%. That's something that we're excited about. There was definitely a benefit from stimulus in late March. But as we expected, due to seasonality around tax refunds and that stimulus volume dropped off into April and early May, but it's actually been a little bit better than we expected. So both those things combined led us to be more optimistic about the rest of the year. We also have a lot of strength in our TriSource back-end processing business. We have some ISOs as customers there that have continued to ramp and grow, and we're excited about that. And we also have some pretty large new customers that we're contracting right now. So that gives us confidence as well. So those are things that I would call out. And again, stimulus had a positive impact for us in Q1, and we're seeing the drop off in Q2 as expected but not to the same extent that maybe we expected. So that's another positive.

And we've seen some nice wins on the B2B side as well.

Okay. That's great. That's great to hear. And then just a quick question on BillingTree. I see in the slide sort of the financial profile. But can you speak to how you see the growth rates on revenues for that business and how much more improvement you might be able to see on that EBITDA margin in the low 40s?

Yes, sure. So you can see the growth rates here in the deck, so the 18% for volume, 15% for gross profit, 15% for adjusted EBITDA, revenues in a similar range, kind of in the low to mid-teens. And they have 80-plus percent gross profit margins, which is really strong. It's actually a little bit higher than us. So BillingTree has solid growth and strong gross profit margins. And then they're currently in the mid-40s from an adjusted EBITDA perspective. We think that could, with synergy realization, tick up into the high 40s, maybe even hit 50% as we realize some of these synergies. So very strong financial profile, both from a growth perspective and a margin perspective.

And just to clarify, do you think that business can continue to grow in the high teens past 2021?

We believe it can grow in the mid- to high teens and maintain those margins while benefiting from synergy realization.

Our next question is from Andrew Schmidt with Citigroup.

Congratulations on the BillingTree acquisition. I wanted to start with a question about the personal loan vertical. It seems to be performing better than expected going into the second quarter. Have you adjusted your expectations for the second half, especially since we will be facing some easier comparisons? Or is it more likely that it will return to typical run rate levels? It would be helpful to get more context on your outlook for the personal loan vertical in the second half.

Yes, we feel positive about our performance so far in Q2. As mentioned, it's slightly better than we anticipated. Our original expectation for the macro environment was a recovery in Q3, which we thought would drive stronger growth in loan repayments, especially for personal loans, in Q3 and Q4. This was particularly due to easier comparisons to last year's performance during those quarters, leading to a strong exit rate into 2022. We still believe that scenario holds. If the current trend in Q2 continues throughout the quarter, we could see even greater growth in Q3 and Q4 as we move into next year. We are definitely encouraged by the progress we have seen so far.

Got it. And with BillingTree, it sounds like you're picking up some good technology here. Is there an opportunity to leverage some of this technology across the other verticals that you're in? Or is it just more sort of isolated to these new verticals that you're getting into? Any benefits from just leveraging their tech platform from a direct billing perspective?

Yes, the technology we have here aligns very well with our existing technology stack. Both of us operate in an omnichannel environment, and our platform development approaches are quite similar. This will facilitate the integration into our target operating technology model. We also share some of the same providers for the authorization engine, and since we own TriSource, there will be additional backend opportunities. Specifically regarding their verticals, their healthcare solutions enhance our front-end billing technology, which is beneficial for us and will improve our capabilities in that area. They also have verticals in energy, which will allow us to expand our offerings. Overall, our technology is well-constructed, and this new technology will integrate effectively. Importantly, the integration is crucial as we plan to grow, particularly in healthcare and credit unions.

And our next question is from Peter Heckmann with D.A. Davidson.

There were a lot of numbers presented, and I'm trying to make sense of some of them, but overall it seems like a significant opportunity. Regarding your market presence following the BillingTree acquisition, it appears you've divided BillingTree into segments like healthcare, accounts receivable, and B2B. If we consider the entire BillingTree along with B2B, are we looking at nearly $9 billion in total volume? How does this break down on a pro forma basis between accounts payable and accounts receivable? What is your vision for potentially consolidating onto a single platform over time?

Yes, the ARM space isn't considered traditional B2B, so we wouldn't categorize it that way. It's more aligned with business process outsourcing for enterprise customers who want to improve their payment efficiency. However, there is a significant market opportunity across all these sectors, amounting to $700 billion in annual payment volume. If we account for some duplicate volumes, like those in credit unions, our total addressable market could rise to $5.3 trillion in annual payment volume. This significantly enhances our total addressable market, and we see numerous advantages in software integration and technology within each vertical.

Yes. And also on a post-acquisition basis, if you're looking at business mix, and you'll see this in the investor presentation, loan repayment is about 50% of payment volume, B2B is about 20%, ARM is about 10%, healthcare is about 10% and other is about 10%.

Okay, that's really helpful. In terms of the closing process, I assume we'll need the usual customary approvals before we can finalize it. Do you think this can be closed in the next six weeks or so?

Yes. Yes. Just standard customary closing conditions, and the expectations were to close by the end of Q2.

Our next question is from Ramsey El-Assal with Barclays.

This is Robert on for Ramsey. Question on TriSource business. You had mentioned that this is kind of ramping back up and growing nicely now. As the business kind of starts to rebound, how do you see the revenue mix of that core portfolio, ex BillingTree, reshaping? I mean TriSource was a $6 million or $7 million business pre-COVID, but how are you thinking about that business in a post-COVID scenario?

Yes, it's significantly higher than that. The volume-based part of the business has recovered to pre-COVID levels. However, the area that is really excelling is the back-end processing business, where we assist customers that are ISOs with clearing and settlement. This segment of the business has continued to perform very well. Therefore, it exceeds the $6 million to $7 million figure you referenced for 2021. Even when we separate ARM from the other category in the BillingTree investor presentation, the total for other still stands at around 10%, primarily composed of TriSource.

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. As a follow-up on the energy sector, it seems that the BillingTree portfolio included 10% related to energy. Can you clarify your strategy moving forward in this area? Are you planning to expand further into the energy vertical, or are you focusing more on the assets acquired through the deal?

It's an asset that BillingTree has had for several years. In addition to payments, there's also some software involved. In the past, we've discussed the possibility of acquiring software companies, as we have mainly focused on purchasing payments companies. However, this is a good example of a situation where there is a payment monetization opportunity within the software in the energy sector. They provide software and payments to fuel and propane dealers in a bundled manner. We see a lot of volume that can be captured on the software side, but the payments are currently not being processed. Therefore, part of our strategy moving forward is to find ways to further monetize those payments.

Our next question is from Joseph Vafi with Canaccord.

Congratulations on acquiring BillingTree; it seems like a valuable addition. I would like to explore personal loans further. What are your thoughts on auto loans, specifically regarding what your customers are currently saying about their loan portfolios? Additionally, given the significance of BillingTree, do you plan to reduce your mergers and acquisitions activity for a while? What are your strategic considerations in this area?

Yes. Our lenders feel really good about their books right now. They're growing nicely and have been. I don't think credit quality is really an issue still even with the growth. And I think that they're just finding ways to engage more digitally with their consumers, which fits really well with our payment technology. We allow them to have that digital engagement through payments. And so that's just continued to be a theme that we've seen as our auto lending customers try to build that more into their offering. And that really helps us in terms of penetration and growth within existing customers. So I'd say that, that still continues to be very strong. And then in terms of additional M&A, we have an active pipeline. We're sitting at 2.9x net leverage, which is a pretty comfortable level for us. We have access to about $243 million liquidity, between $118 million of cash on the balance sheet after the BillingTree acquisition and access to $125 million undrawn revolver. So we think we have capacity for future M&A. We have an active pipeline. We're still looking at deals in B2B. We're looking at potential healthcare opportunities and other verticals that make sense and have a lot of the qualities that BillingTree has. So still have an active M&A pipeline.

Our next question is from Bob Napoli with William Blair.

A good transaction, it looks like. Just the stock, is there an opt-in share count? I mean what are the exact number of shares that Parthenon is getting?

Yes. So it's just over 10 million shares.

Okay. And that's a locked-in share number, right?

Yes. It was based on a 12-day VWAP leading up to signing.

Great. Okay. Now there's, I think, some decent overlap in parts of the business based on what I know about BillingTree and your presentation. You're not in energy, but is the credit union primarily focused on auto loans? And for the ARM, is that mostly related to personal loans? I know it also deals with debt recovery.

Our credit union significantly enhances our capabilities. At the end of the quarter, we had approximately 58 customers, while they had over 120. They possess software relationships with credit unions that we haven't tapped into yet, and we are in discussions about that. This market is promising and they've been successful in it. Additionally, in accounts receivable management, they are a leader and have excellent technology and strong connections with both merchants and software providers. This adds great value for us, as they have many beneficial relationships. We are particularly excited about the health care sector. As you may remember, we are involved in health care on the accounts payable side, processing payments for third-party administrators, from insurance companies to providers, as well as handling accounts payable for hospital systems. This acquisition allows us to delve into patient-related aspects, including consumer-driven payments in hospitals, doctors' offices, or dental practices. Health care comprises various segments, and we see it as a $420 billion market that is rapidly expanding as consumers increasingly take control of their health care decisions. We are very enthusiastic about this potential and anticipate significant growth in this area while also maintaining our strengths in other sectors.

Yes. Bob, I would also mention that the credit unions tend to favor auto lending.

Okay. Great. And then in health care, is that revenue cycle management, is that competing with like Flywire? Or who would be some of the competition in the health care space?

Revenue cycle management overlaps between health care and accounts receivable management, but we might face competition from companies like InstaMed in the health care sector. We also encounter it from time to time in the Ventanex business, along with some other private companies operating in the same area. It is clear that they are part of the revenue cycle management space, which intersects with both health care and receivables management.

And then for the last question, from a cultural perspective, how does this fit? It's a sizable organization with effective leadership. How does that come together? The health care and energy teams are clearly significant. How do you view the culture and how those teams integrate? There will be substantial cost synergies, which seems to indicate a focus on growth.

Yes, we believe our cultures align well. If I'm looking for an optimal strategic opportunity, this combination is quite compelling. We have many one-for-one matches that are financially attractive and allow us to integrate different verticals effectively. We understand their operations, and their omnichannel approach complements ours. Our technology aligns seamlessly with theirs, making this a sensible move for us. They have built a strong company, supported by a first-class team from Parthenon. We need to identify synergies, but we see this as a great opportunity to expand in these verticals.

Our next question is from Tim Willi with Wells Fargo.

I apologize if I missed this at the beginning of the call as I joined a bit late. Can you discuss the acquisition? The margin profile is already very attractive at its current revenue size. I'm curious, compared to your company or others in the market, what aspects of customer base monetization or back office operations contribute to such an appealing revenue profile and the favorable revenue and margin dynamics at this scale?

Yes. Similar to our verticals, these markets are relatively underutilized when it comes to electronic payments and are well integrated with key software providers. Like REPAY, BillingTree provides significant value to their merchants, allowing them to maintain healthy margins. They have selected appealing verticals that are transitioning from traditional payment methods to electronic options, particularly card payments, in a landscape with less competition compared to retail transactions. This results in stronger margins. Additionally, they have effectively built relationships with their vendors and established solid contracts to manage processing costs, which help maintain high gross margins while operating the business in a lean manner to achieve a strong adjusted EBITDA margin. This approach is similar to the way we've structured our own business in terms of processing, operational expenses, and technology, focusing on omnichannels within these specific verticals in a well-integrated manner. There is a lot of overlap, and the situation is very promising.

Yes. Great. I appreciate that. And one quick follow-up, and again, I apologize if you touched on it somewhere in your prepared comments. But just any update around the initiative around the mortgage industry, just anything to call out there, partnership-wise, momentum-wise? Just sort of want to get an update about that end market opportunity.

Yes. A lot of momentum there. We've signed some very large mortgage servicers recently. We've added a large credit union to do their mortgage payments recently, all of them looking for a highly customized processing platform that handles complex exception-based processing. So a lot of momentum there. Gaining a lot of momentum with the Ellie Mae relationship where the technology piece of that is coming together nicely, and we're furthering that technology integration to onboard customers more quickly. We're adding customers of Ellie Mae. So a lot of positive trends within mortgage.

Our next question is from James Faucette with Morgan Stanley.

This is Priscilla on for James. Two quick questions from me. The first is just on the payment volume side. Is there any seasonality that we should be aware of versus some of the ongoing strength that you called out in the April-May trends that you've been seeing? Just we want to make sure we're capturing the cadence of what the business should look like and then obviously, any incremental from the recovery that you're seeing. And then just a quick other follow-up on the payment volume side. Could you give us a sense as to what the organic growth has been trending at?

Yes. So the seasonality is in Q1. Typically, within loan repayments, we get a lot of additional volume from tax refunds. When consumers receive those refunds, they often make larger-than-normal payments on their loans or might even pay off their loans. And then that usually has a seasonal dip in the Q2 when our lenders are more focused on lending and originating than they are in collecting due to refunds, and then we start to see accelerated growth in Q3 and Q4. So that trend is continuing to play out. And we would expect that again, seasonally, Q2 would be down from Q1 for that reason, but then we experience accelerated growth in Q3 and Q4. So we're seeing that continue. And then from an organic perspective, we had a really strong quarter. Organic gross profit growth was 11%. So that was very strong for us, and we're excited about that. We had really large volumes from a lot of our larger personal and auto lenders, and that was a good signal.

Our next question is from Michael Grondahl with Northland Securities.

Can you say that the three senior salespeople you hired, will they be focusing on a specific vertical or more generalist? And then did you say how many salespeople you picked up with BillingTree?

The new sales hires will include one individual specifically focused on selling ISOs for our TriSource back-end processing business, with the aim of attracting additional customers. This business has performed exceptionally well, boasting high margins, and we are eager to expand our customer base. This particular salesperson brings extensive experience in the payments sector. The other hires will concentrate on enterprise-level customers and loan repayment, targeting large clients across various sub-verticals in loan repayment. The BillingTree teams have mainly depended on distribution through software partners, which has minimized the need for a large direct sales force and resulted in numerous referrals from those partners. They do have a robust sales team that will contribute significantly to our efforts. We will also explore opportunities to deepen our relationships with those independent software vendor partnerships as we do regularly.

Our next question is from Tom Blakey with SunTrust.

The first question is about B2B volume. Can you provide insight into the attach rate for acquiring total volume opportunities with your B2B customers? Additionally, as you consider growth in the B2B segment, how much of that will come from new ERP integrations, and what percentage will result from deeper engagement with your existing customer base? Regarding the second question on BillingTree, it's been an intriguing year for them. Since a significant part of their business revolves around accounts receivable management, how does this acquisition complement your current relationship with Billtrust? That information would be appreciated.

The opportunity in B2B volume is substantial. In B2B accounts payable automation, we estimate the addressable market opportunity to be $2.2 trillion, while B2B merchant acquiring stands at $1.2 trillion, totaling around $3.5 trillion in payment volume potential in B2B between accounts payable and accounts receivable. We believe our customers likely have a higher-than-average usage rate of virtual cards. Our goal is to boost this and encourage customers to process more payments through virtual cards, as this is a more profitable line of business for us compared to traditional ACH. We're focused on facilitating customer transitions from checks to electronic payments, particularly enhanced ACH or virtual cards. On the merchant acquiring front for B2B, we plan to market through ERPs like Sage or Acumatica, leveraging their customer bases to promote card payments in business-to-business transactions, thereby increasing card acceptance in B2B merchant acquiring. In BillingTree, the AR management segment is primarily about business process outsourcing and payment acceptance, which may include overdue healthcare payments. Our role here is to assist customers in receiving payments more swiftly and effectively. This aspect isn't directly tied to the BPN integration but involves accepting third-party or late payments in various sub-verticals. Revenue cycle management also plays a role, particularly for hospitals that outsource their billing and collections and seek to accept card payments from patients.

And our next question is from Bob Napoli with William Blair.

Just on BillingTree, that looks like the net take rate is a little bit higher than it is for REPAY. Brings the blended rate up close to 110 basis points. Does that sound right, like 108 basis points, something like that?

That sounds right, yes. Yes, they do have a higher take rate. Yes.

Is that sustainable? You do compete directly in some aspects, which might make it less competitive in certain areas.

Yes, I believe it's sustainable. Based on the data we've gathered and discussions with customers, software partners, and our sales team, we are confident in its sustainability. As you noted, this presents a very appealing financial profile, featuring a strong gross profit and adjusted EBITDA margin, along with a high take rate, which we expect to continue in the future.

There will be more credit in that take rate due to the health care sector, the energy space, and other factors. Credit itself has a higher take rate.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Great. And then just on the B2B payment business, with the four acquisitions you've made, what's working better than others or anything that's really standing out? And what is the growth rate of that B2B payments business combined? So what's standing out? What's the overall growth?

CPS has done really well. They're the business that does payables for large hospital systems or education systems. They really are going after an enterprise client, and they're really good at that type of sale. And we've seen them now win some large customers. Like we've talked about in the call, a top 50 U.S. city, we're now doing all of their payables for their public school system. As you can imagine, there'll be a lot of vendors there and a lot of payables. And we're just seeing a lot of those types of large enterprise wins. They just do a very nice job with that. We hope that will continue across those various verticals. And that business is growing probably 20%, 25% on a combined basis. A big part of it is adding to the supplier network. As you know, that's a big piece of the payables business. And not only adding suppliers, enabling them to accept virtual cards. Both cPayPlus and CPS do a great job of virtual card enablement. That's why we think we have higher-than-average virtual card acceptance rates in these particular sub-verticals as the supplier enablement is very strong.

Are you currently using the BPN or are you still in the process of integrating it?

The technology integration is close to complete, but we've identified some customers within sub-verticals, particularly field services, that we think will benefit from that in the fairly near future here, near term.

And we have reached the end of the question-and-answer session, and this also concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.