Peppermint’s Philippine payments engine reaches a new scale

Payment volumes accelerate after Java migration

Peppermint Innovation Ltd (ASX:PIL) has reported the clearest evidence yet that its Philippine payments platform is moving beyond pilot scale, with customer receipts jumping from A$78,000 to A$1.176 million in the September quarter. Net cash used in operating activities fell 55% to A$287,000, even as direct costs rose with transaction volumes.

“Receipts from customers 78 1,176 +1,408%”

The company’s Peppermint Bizmoto subsidiary recorded gross revenue of ₱48.2 million, up from ₱2.2 million in the June quarter. That acceleration followed the migration of its Person-to-Merchant, or P2M, payment platform to an enterprise-grade Java architecture beginning on 7 August. The earlier QR Ph payment pilot had already established the initial commercial case, but September marked a much larger operating test.

P2M deposits reached ₱4.51 billion in September across 11.53 million network transactions, compared with 2.74 million transactions in August. Approval remained high at 99.87%, above the company’s 96% target, while the timeout ratio fell to 0.0064% against a ceiling of 1%.

Partner-led distribution replaces merchant-by-merchant expansion

Peppermint ended the quarter with 94 direct merchants and 11 Operators of Payment Systems partners managing a further 225 indirect merchants. The company says onboarding times have fallen from seven days to two, supporting a model in which partners bring merchants onto Peppermint’s regulated infrastructure and its connections to InstaPay, QR Ph and PESONet.

The platform’s September performance came with growing operational controls, including payment-amount validation, dispute-management tools, weekly settlement audits and additional callback and withdrawal safeguards. The company is also developing an in-house fraud management system and progressing remediation work following vulnerability testing, while preliminary PCI-DSS gap assessments have begun.

October volumes point to a stronger quarter, but remain unaudited

Preliminary data for 1 to 21 October shows ₱8.20 billion in P2M deposits across 19.3 million transactions, already 1.8 times September’s full-month deposit total. The period included a daily record of ₱500.7 million on 1 October, although the approval rate eased slightly to 99.82% and the timeout ratio rose to 0.0389%.

Those figures are drawn from daily InstaPay operations data and have not been reconciled or audited. Management says the business is currently operating in a positive cash-flow state and expects that position to continue through the December quarter, but the next quarterly report will be needed to show how payment volumes convert into recognised revenue and cash generation.

Cash runway and ASX reinstatement remain live constraints

Peppermint held A$438,000 in cash and cash equivalents at 30 September after receiving A$151,000 from equity securities and drawing a A$150,000 short-term loan from Chill Investments at 8% interest. The loan is repayable within five months, after a qualifying equity raising, or on a change of control, whichever occurs first. Based on the September operating cash outflow, the Appendix 4C calculates 1.5 quarters of funding, although management says improved trading cash flow and further funding arrangements support continued operations.

The company also said ASX has indicated an intention to reinstate PIL securities once conditions are satisfied, including lodgment of a prospectus and an independent experts report on working capital and the company’s condition over the next 12 months. That process matters because the commercial ramp-up is now arriving alongside a balance sheet that still has limited reported liquidity. The planned December-quarter P2M pilot across Pinoy Coop Mobile networks and the rollout of Peppermint Pay to micro-retailers will provide another test of whether the volume surge can become a broader, repeatable revenue base.