Will Peppermint's AI leapfrog boost share price?

ASX-listed Peppermint Innovation Limited (ASX: PIL) hopes to enhance its fintech services via the adoption of the latest artificial intelligence technologies (AI), amidst intense buzz on the market about its potential breakthrough applications.

Peppermint recently acquired another ASX-listed tech company that specialises in AI innovation and customer experience, in a move that it expects to rapidly bolster revenue.

Peppermint embraces AI's transformative potential

Peppermint bills itself as an innovative fintech platform whose mission is to boost financial inclusion across the four key sectors of mobile payments, eCommerce, delivery and logistics and mobile financial services.

In order to further enhance its tech capabilities and avoid missing out on potential breakthrough developments in the AI sector, Peppermint completed the strategic acquisition of fellow ASX-listed tech company XPON Technologies (ASX: XPN) in December.

XPON's expertise lies in artificial intelligence and customer experience – areas of especial relevance to Peppermint's mission to drive financial inclusion using digital technology.

Peppermint hopes to capitalise in particular upon XPON's 'application modernisation' capabilities via the acquisition of its wholly owned subsidiaries, Xpon Digital and Holoscribe Australia, which will be rebranded as Peppermint Intelligence.

'The acquisition of XPON's AI & CX business division is a strategic move for Peppermint, aligning perfectly with our long-term objectives and priorities,' said Peppermint CEO Chris Kain.

Kain said the acquisition would enable Peppermint to 'leapfrog' the years of development otherwise necessary for the creation of advanced AI capabilities.

Peppermint plans to adopt XPON's AI innovations as quickly as possible, with the hope of significantly enhancing the platform's efficiency and customer service quality, and further boosting revenue growth.

'The acquisition is a massive shot in the arm for Peppermint and has the potential to really turbo-charge our revenue stream in a short space of time," Kain said.

'We plan to integrate the AI & CX team into our existing technology operations during the next 6 to 12 months.'

Kain sees the integration of XPON's AI capabilities as improving cost efficiency as well as enhancing the quality and security of its bread-and-butter financing operations.

'This integration will not only enhance our technological delivery capabilities but also allow us to consider cost optimisation and specialisation 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.'

In order to further facilitate the incorporation of AI innovations into its business model, at the start of March 2024 Peppermint successfully raised AUD$1.102 million in a placement of 73,500,000 fully paid ordinary shares to investors.

Southeast Asia could be a vast market for tech-driven financial inclusion

While listed on the ASX, Peppermint's target market lies just north of Australia in Southeast Asia, which is host to a huge population of unbanked financial consumers. According to its figures from Peppermint, over 70% of Southeast Asia's 658 million-strong population does not have access to a bank account.

Peppermint's current focus is providing fintech services in the Philippines, where it claims around 110 million people remain unbanked. Key products and services include the Bizmoto mobile app that caters to microenterprises, as well as e-commerce, mobile payments, cash transfer and digital wallet services.

Should Peppermint manage to further consolidate its presence in the Philippines with the aid of its newly acquired AI capabilities, the company could be well positioned to expand further into other parts of Southeast Asia, where there is potentilaly a vast demand for digital financial inclusion.

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