Paymentus Q2 Earnings Call Highlights

Paymentus (NYSE:PAY) reported record second-quarter revenue of $360.7 million, up 28.8% from a year earlier, as higher transaction volumes, new biller launches and growth from existing customers helped the billing and payments company exceed its prior guidance.

Founder and CEO Dushyant Sharma said the company’s second-quarter results included contribution profit of $118.1 million, up 26.3% year over year, and adjusted EBITDA of $48.8 million, a 54% increase. Paymentus processed 213.4 million transactions during the quarter, up 21.4% from the prior-year period.

“Paymentus delivered another strong quarter,” Sharma said, pointing to record revenue and what he described as substantial bookings and backlog. Management said it believes those factors provide visibility for the remainder of 2026 and into 2027.

Enterprise activity and broad-based growth

CFO Sanjay Kalra said second-quarter revenue growth was driven primarily by increased transactions across the business, including newly launched billers and same-store sales from existing customers. Average revenue per transaction rose to $1.69 from $1.59 a year earlier, which Kalra attributed mainly to biller mix, including large enterprise customers launched in the third quarter of 2025 that carry higher average payment amounts.

Contribution profit per transaction increased to $0.55 from $0.53 a year earlier. Contribution margin was 32.7%, compared with 33.4% in the prior-year quarter, reflecting the addition of larger, higher-volume enterprise billers. Kalra said that margin change was substantially offset by a year-over-year reduction in operating-expense margin.

Non-GAAP operating expenses rose 10.5% to $54.2 million, primarily due to sales and marketing hiring and agency fees related to resellers and partners. Still, the company reported adjusted EBITDA equal to 41.3% of contribution profit, compared with 33.9% a year earlier, and an incremental adjusted EBITDA margin of 69.6%.

Paymentus generated $39 million in free cash flow during the quarter. It ended the period with $379.7 million in cash and cash equivalents, up from $342.1 million at the end of the first quarter, and reported no debt.

Management said demand was particularly strong among large enterprise customers, though Kalra emphasized during the question-and-answer session that contribution-profit growth was broad-based across large, midsize and smaller customers rather than concentrated in a single customer type or vertical. The company cited activity across utilities, government agencies, telecommunications, property management, insurance, banking, education, business-to-business, consumer finance and other sectors.

Kalra also said implementation timelines have continued to improve as Paymentus gains efficiencies in its processes and as average customer sizes increase.

Raised 2026 outlook

Based on first-half performance, bookings and expectations for the rest of the year, Paymentus raised its full-year 2026 outlook for revenue, contribution profit and adjusted EBITDA.

• Revenue is now expected to be $1.443 billion to $1.458 billion, representing 21.2% growth at the midpoint and 21.9% at the high end.
• Contribution profit is projected at $460 million to $465 million, or 19.7% growth at the midpoint and 20.4% at the high end.
• Adjusted EBITDA is forecast at $175 million to $185 million, representing 31% growth at the midpoint and 34.6% at the high end.

The revised midpoint revenue outlook represents an approximately $18 million increase from prior guidance, while the midpoint adjusted EBITDA outlook increased by about $11.5 million.

For the third quarter, Paymentus expects revenue of $353 million to $363 million, contribution profit of $112 million to $115 million, and adjusted EBITDA of $40 million to $45 million.

Kalra said larger enterprise clients can seek volume discounts, but Paymentus is willing to offer them when the economics support the arrangement. He said those discounts can be more than offset by incremental adjusted EBITDA because of operating leverage, declining onboarding time per biller and increasing average customer size.

AI and service-commerce strategy

Sharma also discussed the company’s Billeo artificial intelligence-native service-commerce suite, which Paymentus announced during the prior quarter. He said the company sees an opportunity to provide clients with additional AI infrastructure, workflow and data-security capabilities beyond billing and payments.

Among the capabilities cited were the Billeo AI360 intelligence engine, an agentic service suite intended to augment the company’s human service center, an intelligent data vault, and a transactional billing and reconciliation engine. Sharma said Paymentus is receiving positive feedback from clients, prospective clients and partners on the AI-related offerings.

He said Paymentus expects its AI investments to begin contributing to the income statement over the next several years, while maintaining a focus on growth and incremental margins. The company did not provide enrollment figures for BillWallet, but Sharma said the number of users has increased and that Paymentus may provide a broader update annually.

Sharma said Paymentus believes its platform’s ability to handle workflows, business rules, data and intelligence layers is helping it gain enterprise traction. He said enterprise customers increasingly view the company as more than a payment-processing provider, with the potential to consolidate multiple applications through a single platform integration.

About Paymentus (NYSE:PAY)

Paymentus is a U.S.-based financial technology company that specializes in cloud-native bill payment and presentment solutions. Its platform enables businesses and government entities to manage the entire payment lifecycle, from electronic bill presentment and real-time payment processing to reconciliation and reporting. Through web portals, mobile applications, interactive voice response (IVR) systems and in-person channels, Paymentus helps clients streamline accounts receivable operations, enhance customer engagement and reduce operational costs.

Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, Paymentus has built a modular suite of services that can be tailored to the needs of various industries.