Acquisition winning contracts. $525K over 12 months. $1.1M was raised at 1.5c. CPS Capital takes 6% fee and 15 M options @2.25c comes on board for $5K a month for 6 months as an advisor. Half year loss of $1.6M so still likely to need to raise further this year.

Peppermint Intelligence Limited ("PINT") secures several key artificial intelligence ("AI") and customer experience ("CX") contracts since being acquired

Globally recognised Amnesty International extends 9-year working relationship

Informa Connect, World Television and Action Against Hunger renew specific project contracts

Combined value of contracts secured worth more than AUD$525,000 since December '23

Contract terms vary from 2 to 12 months with revenue to be recognised monthly as work delivered across the various projects PINT developing groundbreaking AI-driven platform aimed at matching and monetising people's skills and experiences with those needing help

Acquisition of PINT's AI and CX team has allowed Peppermint to leapfrog years of development in building similar capabilities, methodologies, frameworks and outputs from scratch

Peppermint is actively building PINT's AI and CX capabilities into its business operations

"Peppermint acquires exciting AI Business." Bought for £1 but with a commitment to fund the ongoing running costs@$160K /month from ASX listed XPON. Not enough revenue to cover costs surely or they would have sold it for more. Capital raise must be coming despite their protestations about no change. Could significantly improve scalability of the platform.

The AI & CX team has been instrumental in leading significant digital transformations and integrating advanced AI capabilities into various renowned businesses in the UK.

"It generated revenues of circa $5.5 million (GDP 3 million) in FY23 and by acquiring this seasoned team, Peppermint is effectively leapfrogging years of development in building similar capabilities, methodologies, frameworks and outputs from scratch to focus on the Company's business going forward.

"We plan to integrate the AI & CX team into our existing technology operations during the next 6-12 months. This integration will not only enhance our technological delivery capabilities but also allow us to consider cost optimisation and specilisation across our technology teams, ensuring a more efficient overall structure.

"This will enable us to accelerate our AI transformation across loan origination, scoring, management and collections to deliver on our vision to become a leading automated lending business to the financially underserved.

"Additionally, the existing client base of the AI & CX business division provides an immediate offset to the costs associated with the team. It also offers Peppermint the opportunity to deploy any under- utilised resources within our core business for billable work.

The AI & CX division:

The AI & CX division builds and deploys modern applications and an optimal customer experience utilsing AI tools to enhance the user journey. The division develops applications and then offers a managed service subscription to maintain, enhance and upgrade them. The aim of this process is to use data and technology to create a highly personalised, financially rewarding and compelling customer experience.

The AI & CX team includes 19 highly skilled professionals across the United Kingdom, Australia and Vietnam, covering management, sales, finance, operations, delivery, customer experience and technical engineering. The core 13-member Vietnamese technical development team includes AI engineers experienced in handling small and large-scale AI projects, full-stack developers, CX experts (specialising in designing user journeys that leverage AI driven personalisation and recommendation strategies to drive conversion and retention), product managers, and quality assurance managers. The team has a proven track record of selling, delivering and scaling high-value solutions.

Peppermint plans to integrate this established and proven team into its existing business to drive improvements across its own technology platform, optimise current technical development programs and deliver a premium customer experience to drive user engagement. The ability to enhance the uptake and efficiency of the Peppermint platform with a sophisticated CX and AI in-house team is exciting.

Some thoughts from HC

“XPN have stated that the divestment will result in revenue and expenses reducing by approximately 15%.

Their revenue for FY23 was $15.07 million so it appears PIL will be taking over about $2.26 million of that income stream. That compares quite favourably to PIL's claim that monthly operating costs will be $160,000 per month ($1.92 million per annum). So the XPN division that is being acquired appears to be in operating surplus by about $340K per annum.

Offsetting that, however, will be higher corporate costs (ie audit, compliance etc) due to having a UK subsidiary - assuming it cannot be relocated.

XPN expenses for FY23, including depreciation but excluding one-off restructuring costs, were about $18.42 million. So, according to them, the 15% reduction in expenses for XPN will amount to about $2.81 million. PIL will be taking over all but $890K of that as operating costs (ie $2.81 million - $1.92 million).”

Two certifications that allow PIL to clip the ticket on electronic transactions within the Bizmoto app, previously provided by athird party. SP up 33% at time of writing albeit off a very low base.

Peppermint Managing Director and CEO Chis Kain said: "The BSP's certification of our operations is an important milestone in Peppermint's strategy to fully leverage our Electronic Money Issuer ("EMI") licence and use it to drive revenue growth via increased transactions across the bizmoto platform."

By way of some comparison, a Philippines mobile-App based platform with an EMI licence called Coins.ph was sold in early 2021 for US200 million, after having been purchased by Gojek for around US$95 million in 2019."

"Peppermint has a commercially proven, deployed and growing mobile-App based ecosystem in the Philippines which is underpinned by a Finance Company Licence and an EMI licence. We are currently valued at circa AUD$13M."

Peppermint Bizmoto Inc. ("PBI") issued with Certificate of Registration ("COR") as an Operator of Payment System ("OPS") by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas ("BSP")

• Certification allows PBI to be listed among the BSP's 'approved and supervised' Operator Payment Systems throughout the Philippines, providing a safe, efficient and reliable payment and settlement system for its Bizmoto users

• PBI issued with Certificate of Eligibility ("COE") by the BSP for direct membership with the Philippines Payments Management Inc. ("PPMI"),

• Certification allows PBI to join PPMI in the PESONet and InstaPay Automated Clearing Houses ("ACH") as a Sending and Receiving Participant under the National Retail Payment System ("NRPS") of the Philippines

PERTH, AUSTRALIA, 27 SEPTEMBER 2023: Peppermint Innovation Ltd (ASX: PIL) ("Peppermint" or "the Company) is pleased to announce its 100 per cent owned subsidiary, Peppermint Bizmoto Inc. ("PBI") has been issued two vitally important bank certifications by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas ("BSP").

The BSP, which is commonly referred to as the Central Bank of the Philippines, has issued PBI with a Certificate of Registration ("COR") as Operator of Payment System ("OPS") and a Certificate of Eligibility ("COE") for membership in the Philippines Payments Management Inc. ("PPMI") allowing direct connection to the PESONet and InstaPay Automated Clearing Houses ("ACH") as a Sending and Receiving Participant under the National Retail Payment System ("NRPS") of the Philippines.

The critical certification provides for PBI to be listed among the BSP's 'approved and supervised' Operator Payment Systems throughout the Philippines, providing a safe, efficient and reliable payment and settlement system for its bizmoto users.

It also allows PBI to operate its payments platform outside of its closed loop of bizmoto users and ensures that its role as a payment service provider to small banks, organisations, transportation services and any other community group delivers quality payment services via bizmoto.

Despite PIL being granted the EMI licence this quarter the revenue is still a way off. Revenue does not even cover product manufacturing and operating costs. $5M cash at hand. Agent growth but only 4K downloads of the app and agents/ riders no growth. The next half will be important in proving/disproving the platform business model. Large market but needs to gain traction. Interesting to see if the financial education app can help achieve growing customer numbers. White label mobile banking solution could help revenue.

"With these final requirements all but completed this week, we expect to launch our EMI pilot program this quarter, provided that our chosen communities and program partners are able to meet an agreed timeline.

"And finally, the Company is also in discussions with a global digital payments provider with respect to a strategic partnership and I look forward to providing further updates to our shareholders and the market in relation to these negotiations shortly.

The EMI licence will significantly extend Peppermint Bizmoto’s opportunity to reach microentrepreneurs and provide digital payments for their businesses. They can also apply for bizmoPay loans, as well as purchasing bizmoProtect micro-insurance policies and future bizmoto platform products and services.

A targeted marketing campaign saw the number of registered bizmoto agents grow in the June quarter to a total of 63,337 agents while the total number of bizmoto App downloads continued to rise, up 11% to a total of 4048 downloads for the June Quarter. The number of registered merchants remained at 748 while the number of registered BizmoGo riders also remained steady at 672.

To strengthen the bizmoto offering, Peppermint is progressing the development of a financial education App - to be called bizKarte - that aims to help improve the financial understanding and wellbeing of both agents and the wider Filipino community. The standalone App will deliver learning content across several areas including (i) Savings, (ii) Investments, (iii) Household bill management; (iv) Budgeting; and (v) Small business management and is aimed at attracting new consumer-focussed clients to the bizmoto ecosystem.

The Company is now at varying stages of commercial negotiations with at least five other banks around the implementation of Peppermint's MBS services. It is currently assisting these banks to assess their technical requirements to join the BancNet server in order to successfully onboard Peppermint's MBS services.

Held in SM

Yesterday, Peppermint Innovation Limited (ASX:PIL) requested a Trading Halt pending the release of an announcement “regarding the issue of an important licence for the Company in the Philippines.” This might relate to their critical application for an Electronic Money Institutions (EMI) license.

From the company’s website:

“Peppermint Innovation is a FinTech company focused on the commercialisation of the Peppermint Platform, a proprietary technology platform targeting four key business sectors – mobile payments, eCommerce, delivery and logistics, and mobile financial services.

The Peppermint Platform is an innovative financial technology solution aimed at delivering financial inclusion to the unbanked and underbanked, facilitating mobile micro business enterprise and providing consumer convenience.

Commercially deployed and proven in the Philippines, Peppermint is powering the company’s own Bizmoto non-bank mobile micro-enterprise platform and delivering white label mobile banking app solutions to the banking sector.”

In summary, this small Perth-based fintech enterprise has plans to take advantage of non-bank e-commerce and small loans opportunities, initially in the Phillipines.

The road has been extremely rocky for this group over the last few years, with an extended period of suspension from the ASX in the setting or reporting schedule defaults, but a somewhat smoother tracking over the last 12 months, with more recent quarterlies suggesting good growth in their network of smart-phone app-based agents.

The critical issue for PIL has been the success or otherwise of their application for an Electronic Money Institutions (EMI) license via Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas ("BSP").

This announcement may or may not herald a very positive move for the company, and might provide a significant speculative opportunity.

Disclosure: I have a small RL holding in PIL.

PIL integrates with major payment platform (live Q2) to provide transfer route into the the Bizmoto system for the non bank clients that the platform targets.

• Peppermint signs key bill payment agreement with PayMaya Philippines, Inc.

• bizmoto classified as a 'biller' on the PayMaya technology platform

• Agreement makes it easy for bizmoto agents to 'top-up' or 'cash-in' to their bizmoto mobile wallets

• PayMaya has 26 million registered App users and a network of 55,000 'Smart Padala' partner agents across the Philippines.

Peppermint, this is yet another step in trying to integrate and become completely interoperable with the payments landscape in the Philippines and, most importantly, make the process for our bizmoto agents to cash-in to their bizmoto wallet as frictionless and seamless as possible.

"Our aim is to have all the necessary technical and system integration complete to enable a first phase 'go-live' date in Q2 this year.

SP back at lows well below the CR and no good news in the quarterly. Lockdowns have affected roll out in the Philippines. Revenue down.

Only highlight is progress towards EMI.

All required documentation for Stage 3 has been submitted and on January 24 the Company delivered an in-depth system demonstration to the Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas (BSP) who are assessing Peppermint's EMI licence application.

PIL has moved off its lows quite significantly it will be interesting to see if this is a catalyst for wider interest.

The Company has chosen to extend the indicative settlement date by seven days to allow it time to fully assess a potential new, strategic investment partner.

PIL placement and progress to Electronic Money Issuer (EMI) License. Continued progress to revenue and growth

• $4 million committed at 2 cents per share in placement

• Funds will progress Electronic Money Issuer (EMI) Licence application and commercial roll-out of bizmoPay loan service

• Notice of Eligibility to proceed with Stage 3 of Electronic Money Issuer (EMI) License application received from Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas (BSP)

• EMI licence will allow any Filipino to use the bizmoto platform to receive digital money and access digital services

• Company to conduct a bonus option issue to existing shareholders

• Phase 1 commercial roll-out of bizmoPay underway

Peppermint launches bizmoPay commercial roll-out

Up to 1,000 micro-enterprise loans expected to be issued across the loan portfolio during next three-month period

This will be the test of whether the company can be successful. If they can hit this target and get the Electronic Money Issuer (EMI) licence then I would hope to see a significant rerate.