Plenti also reported a record cash net profit after tax (NPAT) of $4.5 million, up $4.0 million from financial year 2022. Cash NPAT in the second half of the year was $3.1 million, up 125 per cent from the $1.4 million cash NPAT achieved in the first half of 2023 — something which Plenti chief executive and founder Daniel Foggo said was due to a number of things.

“Growing cash NPAT to $4.5 million in a year when funding costs increased materially is testament to the strength of our technology-led business model and our talented team. We leveraged our product diversity and capabilities across customer reach, funding and credit, to deliver another differentiated performance,” he said.

“We enter our new financial year confident of our ability to continue building market share in each of our loan verticals, and our ability to translate these market share gains into robust profit growth.”

Over 500 family law firms are now partnered with the lending platform, which head of legal finance Rose Dravitzki confirmed to Lawyers Weekly.

“We are now working with over 500 family law firms and have helped resolve around $2.5 billion in property settlements,” she said.

“The last 12 months have seen us get faster and more streamlined with new technology for our lawyers and clients, new processes and a new product for smaller matters to help more families move to resolution.”

In addition, Plenti has also reached over $100 million in legal fees funded.

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“Plenti is proud to have reached a $100 million legal fee lending milestone, as it provides evidence that a large number of family lawyers have confidence in our ability to help their clients achieve a fair outcome.

“We’re excited to leverage our relationships with family lawyers and our technology roots to continue to make it simpler to pay for legal fees, and to remove legal costs as a barrier to clients obtaining a fair outcome,” Mr Foggo told Lawyers Weekly.

“We have worked hard since we started funding family matter legal fees in 2016 to make the process of obtaining finance as simple as possible for our lawyer partners and their clients, whilst also ensuring we continue to offer really good value to our borrowers.”

Elsewhere, Plenti recorded a net credit loss rate of 0.68 per cent for FY23, up from 0.54 per cent in FY22, with the increase reflecting the seasoning of the loan portfolio and generally higher credit losses across lending markets following a period of low losses supported by COVID-19-related fiscal and monetary stimulus.

In an announcement to the market, Plenti noted that the company had materially reduced cost-to-income ratio, further evidencing operating leverage inherent in Plenti’s technology-led business model, completed two asset-backed securities (ABS) transactions, bringing total ABS issuance to over $1.3 billion, and delivered enhancements to proprietary technology platform, improving customer experiences, speed of service and efficiency.

“The first ABS issued, a secured automotive loan transaction, was completed in June 2022, and was subsequently voted the KangaNews ABS Deal of the Year for 2022 by industry participants. The second ABS issued, of renewable energy and personal loan receivables, was notable for $73.5 million of the notes being green-certified under the Climate Bonds Standard, and for the margin discount achieved relative to the equivalent non-green AAA-rated tranche,” Plenti stated in an announcement to the ASX.

“This is believed to be the first time a ‘greenium’ has been achieved in a public market debt issuance in Australia for over five years.”

In addition, Plenti launched GreenConnect, an innovative platform that brings together renewable energy product manufacturers, energy retailers and equipment installers, undertook substantial retail investor platform enhancements, including the simplification of investment markets and the introduction of a new investment market to provide exposure to Plenti ABS notes, and broadened automotive loan offering and distribution, while growing stronger credit segment electric vehicle and commercial automotive loan originations.

“Plenti expects to increase its focus on driving loan origination growth as FY24 progresses, supporting continued growth in its loan portfolio and allowing further economies of scale to be realised,” the ASX announcement stated.

“Robust full-year cash NPAT growth is expected to be achieved in FY24, with a more pronounced weighting towards the second half of the year.”