Much commentary on Block’s Q2 2022 results focused on its quixotic Bitcoin strategy but there was also news of its steady progress upmarket and away from reliance on the US.
International gross payment volume (GPV) processed grew 45% compared with 22% in the US, with revenue up 78% to $257m. International gross profit doubled to $98m including a maiden contribution from BNPL and now accounts for 12% of the global total. Excluding BNPL, international gross margin grew 40% to $67m.
Product launches continue apace, as you’d expect from a business spending an eye-popping $512m on product development in the quarter. Block launched 44 products “across our international markets in the first half of 2022 making significant progress on closing product parity gaps while also launching new markets.” This included Square Register in Ireland and Square for Retail in France and Spain.
The proportion of GPV from larger merchants (across all geographies) continues to grow and almost 40% is now accounted for by those processing over $500K per annum.
Meanwhile, in filings at Companies House, Block revealed that UK revenue rose by 110% in 2021 to £25.1m. Square Loans – a merchant cash advance product in which repayments are scaled to a proportion of card payments received – will be launched in 2022/3.
