The SME-focused fintech payments company, Equals Group (EQLS ), has confirmed to investors that it has significantly exceeded full-year expectations for both revenues and Adjusted EBITDA.
In a trading update released today, Equals Group reported £40.4m in group revenue for the year to date (1 January to 6 December 2021), a 51% year-on-year rise from £26.8m in 2020.
Meanwhile, group revenue for the around three month period 1 October 2021 to 6 December (the ‘Period’) was £11.6m compared to £5.7m for the same period last year – a rise of 105%.
Equals reiterated that the year to date and the Period benefitted from a material international payments transaction for a large corporate client that generated revenue of £1.5m. Underlying revenues rose by 45% over the year to date and 78% in the Period to date, respectively.
The Group said these significant increases have been largely driven by strong demand for the its ‘Equals Solutions’ proposition, a new multi currency product aimed at larger businesses, which has generated
£3.1 million in the year to date and £1.2 million in the Period alone; along with substantial growth in both its Spend platform and its white-label business, it noted.
While B2C travel-money product revenues represented only 5% of total revenue in the Period, the overall strong revenue performance has underpinned rising gross profits and EBITDA and therefore, the Group has now exceeded full-year profitability forecasts, Equals told investors.
Equals believes its trading performance ‘further underpins its confidence in accelerating momentum and maintaining growth moving into the final days of 2021 and into FY22.’
It stated that in order to drive further growth the Group continues to re-invest and to upgrade the sales functions of the business and this will be reflected in higher staff costs in 2022.
Ian Strafford-Taylor, Chief Executive Officer of Equals Group said: “I am delighted to be able to inform the market that the strong performance we saw in September and October has continued and allowed us to significantly surpass the market expectations for the full year in early December. Our results show the results of strategic steps we undertook three years ago to pivot the business to a B2B-focus and to invest into our platforms and connectivity.”
In October 2021, Equals Group completed a material international payments transaction that has since contributed to around £1.5 million of Group revenues in the current financial year. The transaction represented the largest single transaction ever completed by Equals Group.
Equals explained to investors that this transaction had been ‘one-off in nature’ but evidenced the ability of the Group to attract large corporate clients through its state-of-the-art platforms.
‘That, coupled with highly professional service levels, translates into increased credibility for the Group’s ability to act as a financial counterpart in major transactions,’ it acknowledged.
To date, Equals’ revenue growth has largely been augmented by the strong demand for its ‘Equals Solutions’ proposition, the new multi currency product aimed at larger businesses.
In particular, 1H21 showed strong B2B growth in transaction volumes and revenues across all product lines of International Payments, the Corporate Spend platform and Banking Services.
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