Paymentus Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PAY) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator: Thank you for your question. The next question is from the line of Andrew Bauch with SMBC. Your line is now open.

Lamar Clark: Hey, guys. It’s Lemar on for Andrew. Thanks for taking the question. Last quarter you had mentioned that you expect to exit 2022 with $100 million of new bookings, so I just wanted to see if that was the case? And then can you also just provide an initial view on what the implementation pipeline is looking so far two months into the year?

Dushyant Sharma: So we did achieve that. We finished over $100 million, stronger than we thought we were going to do, so very happy with the bookings performance and we are off to a good start this year as well. And in terms of the implementation pipeline as I refer you back to the prepared remarks, I said that, if we actually to deliver the topline of our expectations on the topline of the revenue, we don’t need to sign any new client. So that should give you some indication.

Lamar Clark: Got you. And then just to touch back on the point around the drag that inflation is having on growth. Is there anything else here that we should be considering outside of the macro? Is it just delayed implementations of onboarding?

Dushyant Sharma: I think it’s two factors. I mean implement — delayed implementations is one of them and the other one is the pressure on the contribution profit yourself from the inflation. So, as you know, in some cases, some specific sector for a utility client base, as the average payment amount gets inflated, that affects our contribution profit temporarily. And that’s what I was trying to say that client discussions are going well and we are making the adjustments. And some of that has gone — some of that is already implemented, some of that is already in the process and some of that will happen throughout the year.

Lamar Clark: Thanks. And sorry, just more from me. On IPN, I think previously you had said that, you expect it to grow to a double-digit share of the overall business, is that still the case?

Dushyant Sharma: I think we — not quite. So it’s €˜not — but it’s growing faster than our business, our — the core business you are seeing.

Lamar Clark: Okay. All right. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you for your question. The next question is from the line of Tien Huang with JPMorgan. Your line is now open.

Tien Huang: Hey. Good afternoon. Dushyant, I just want to ask for a little bit more color on how you think about the pipeline and the backlog, because we have been hearing broadly about bigger deals coming back and enterprises looking to be more careful with spend, but also look for opportunities to be more efficient and have better customer engagement. So how do you think that all shakes out for Paymentus and your thoughts on replenishing your backlog and sizing of the pipeline, that kind of thing?

Dushyant Sharma: Yeah. Actually, great question, Tien-Tsin. So, the way to think about this would be and if I may take a step back actually. If you recall that we have Horizon 1, the mid-market and then Horizon 2, which is enterprise. During the COVID, what we felt was that the discussions that didn’t require boardroom presence where the multiple executives are involved in making a decision. Those discussions were happening fine and fast, just as fast as earlier, including the implementation. So signing the client and implementations is fine. But where there used to be a high touch customer engagement, whether it was related to signing of the client or implementing of such clients, there we started to see a little bit of slowness during the COVID years.