Usio Reiterates Fiscal 2023 Revenue Growth Guidance Of 18-20% YoY

Electronic Payments Processing Volume Jumps 21% in Fourth Quarter Excluding Crypto Volumes

Expects to Report Record Fiscal 2023 Revenues and Positive Full Year Adjusted EBITDA

Usio, Inc. (NASDAQ:USIO), a cloud-based, integrated FinTech electronic payment solutions provider, today reiterated Guidance that full year 2023 revenues will increase 18 – 20% from full year 2022 based on strong fourth quarter transactions and processing volume, as reported below.

Louis Hoch, President and Chief Executive Officer of Usio, said, "We expect our strong fourth quarter electronic payments processing dollar volume and transaction growth to drive full-year revenues up 18 – 20% to a new record high, and to deliver positive Adjusted EBITDA for the year."

Total Dollars processed in the fourth quarter of 2023 were up 21% compared to the same period last year, led by a 65% increase in purchase volume in Usio's Prepaid business, where total dollars loaded on prepaid cards exceeded $100 million for the second consecutive quarter. Growth in Usio's Card business was led by a 17% year-over-year increase in PayFac volume. Total Card reported a sequential acceleration in the rate of dollars processed growth, improving to 8% in the fourth quarter from 5% in the third quarter, delivering full-year record processing volume. Card growth primarily reflects the increasing strength of Usio's PayFac business, which was up 17% year-over-year in the quarter. And, electronic check transaction volume and dollars processed in Usio's ACH business were both up in the fourth quarter from a year ago, reversing recent declines precipitated by the withdrawal from processing for cryptocurrency companies.

The Company also noted that, excluding volume from the crypto industry, which the Company exited late in 2022, total full year 2023 processing volume would have been up 21% compared to full year 2022.

Mr. Hoch concluded, "Our innovative solutions, from the introduction of PayFac-in-a-box, one of the industry's first PayFac solutions, to our Prepaid business' remote authorization technology, continue to meet the needs of organizations pressed to provide convenience and simplicity to consumers adopting a growing variety of digital payment methods. While I am certainly pleased with the growth in 2023, I am more importantly looking forward to another great year based on our record new business pipeline, some of which has the potential to convert into contracts in the near term. I am also anticipating the significant capacity expansion undertaken in our Output Solutions business to support our push into the Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment market, building on Output Solution's first-ever quarter in which it produced more electronic documents than paper ones. Fourth quarter volumes represent another accomplishment in our ongoing record of consistently growing the business and the achievement of a milestone key to building value for our shareholders."

Fourth Quarter 2023 Processing Results

Year-over-year Credit Card Dollars Processed growth accelerated from 5% in the third quarter of 2023.

Total dollars loaded on prepaid cards exceeded $114 million in the fourth quarter, the second consecutive quarter of over $100 million in prepaid card loads.

Electronic check transaction volume and dollars processed in the fourth quarter were both up year-over-year after recording declines earlier in the year.

Total pieces processed and mailed by Output Solutions in Q4 exceeded 6 million, and electronic documents delivered exceeded 11 million. After running at over 100% of capacity for much of 2023, Output Solutions recently invested in new technology to expand its production capacity by approximately 50%, which is expected to reignite year-over-year growth beginning early in 2024.

Full Year 2023 Processing Results

Total dollars processed for Card was $1.4 billion for the year, a new full-year record.

Total dollars loaded on prepaid cards exceeded $371million in 2023, a new full-year record.

Total pieces processed and mailed by Output Solutions in 2023 exceeded 25.6 million. Total electronic only documents, including statements, bills and other documents, processed and delivered exceeded 37.3 million. It is the first time that Output Solutions produced more electronic documents than paper ones. This led to increased gross margins for 2023 for Output Solutions.

For full year 2023, total dollars processed were $5.3 billion, down 26%, while total transactions processed were 37.2 million, down 9%, both due to a decrease in ACH arising from our exit from the crypto industry.