Novatti Group Limited (ASX:NOV) CEO Peter Cook provides an update on the company's payments ecosystem, strategic investment in Reckon (ASX:RKN) and plans to enter new markets and extend operations following its $40m capital raising in July.Novatti is in the space of payments, and we are facing into a very strong growing thematic of cash to cashless payments and digital transformation of the financial services sector. We enable businesses to pay and be paid. We do it by offering multiple services, and really taking advantage of, as I said, these major thematics. Digitisation of all industries, but in particular financial services. Growth in the whole conversion of cash payments to cashless. Growth in the number of payments in general, and the need for customers to have new types of services, new types of payments that aren't necessarily being met by traditional providers, such as banks or other major players.
Novatti is a multi-services payment provider. We provide multiple services, whether it be what's called issuing, acquiring, cross border payments, subscriber billing. By providing these multiple services, we're exposing ourselves to the most number of transaction points, with the ability for our clients to be able to get fees and revenues from as many points as possible.
Our customers in general, in fact 100% essentially are business to business customers. About half of our customers are other Fintechs, banks and financial service providers. And about half of our customers are traditional merchants and businesses. So our revenues either come from other payment providers, where we're providing an underlying service, or they come from in merchants, where we are providing a service to those merchants.
In a structural sense, all of the segments we're in are undergoing immense growth. We are facing into mega markets. An example would be the global remittance market. The world bank says it's plus or minus $600 billion US and growing every year. Merchant acquiring, issuing all the marketplaces that we're in, growing very strongly.
In a strategy sense, we build our business by creating an ecosystem or infrastructure, and we see that that's based on licenses. So we have financial services licenses in Australia. We've got an AUSTRAC remittance registration. We're licensed in New Zealand. We've got a license in Canada, seeking other licenses in Europe and Singapore. We have a license with Visa to be a Visa issuer in Australia and New Zealand. And on top of that, we build technology and we generate and agree with major commercial partners, commercial arrangements.
So for instance, as a public listed company in Australia with these licenses, we can pair off with companies such as Visa, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Alipay WeChat, UnionPay from China and others. And as an Australian company, we can get these global partnerships. And in some cases be are leading partner of theirs in Australia. And in other cases, work with them overseas to drive our revenues. And on top of this, we have an absolutely outstanding team. We've actually increased our staffing from about 68 last year to over 120 during this calendar year. And are building very strongly to be able to take advantage of the revenues and just the growth in payments that's ensuing everywhere.
If we look at some of the achievements from last year, partnerships with UnionPay is a new one, Google Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, primarily for our issuing business but also for our acquiring business. Visa, getting licensed by the New Zealand regulator and Visa for New Zealand, and then providing the underlying virtual card service for the after pay launch in New Zealand. Growing our team, absolutely from scratch, building and acquiring business that is now signing on tens of customers per month, and building up a very significant profile. Commercial arrangement with Ripple, where we are a leading part of theirs in Australia. First market that we've opened up with them is the Philippines, and more markets coming. Immersion, our subscription billing business, we took into the US and are now starting to get clients and revenues from the US. And funding commitments for our bank application, more later on that.
Looking at some of our financials, we've continued to grow revenue at circa 50% per annum for the last four years. Last year our sales revenue, $16.4 million, total revenue, $18.4 million. And as I said, basically growing at a clip of about 50% per annum. And within our total revenue, our financial processing revenue, 73% growth compared to the prior year.
And even within the quarter's, very consistent growth quarter on quarter, and in particular on prior calendar period. And really as an aim, it is to grow our revenues at the same sort of rate if 50% per annum for this year and beyond.
We undertook a major capital raising in early July, we raised about $40 million of which $22 million was spent on acquiring a 19.9% stake in listed company Reckon Limited. We finished the year, FY20 with about $8 million in the bank. And net we've added that $40 million. And so we have a very strong balance sheet at the moment, very set for growth, both organic and inorganic. And these are the driving strategies of business, top line growth, continuing at circa 50% per annum, and then seeking M&A activity that supports that. Underlying EBITDA was a loss last year of a bit over $4 million and very, very affordable within our balance sheet. We have no debt on the balance sheet. And as I said, absolutely prepared for growth this financial year.
And as an example of our growth, we are really hiring. As I've said, we added about 60 staff last financial year, we've got another 30 or 40 that have been added or are being added in the current period. And we will be a very major player in the payment space in Australia and overseas, as we take advantage of the market segments that we're in.
So looking forward for FY22, top line growth, aiming at least at this 50% sales revenue growth. We've achieved a $40 million fundraising. We are very, very well funded to increase our presence in our current markets, to enter new markets and extend some of the operations we do in Australia. And noting that we already do have a presence in Southeast Asia, Europe, and South America, for our financial processing operations.
We are actively working with management of Reckon to explore synergies and to take advantage of the opportunities that their customer base present. So Reckon have over a hundred thousand small to medium business customers. They've also got their accounting customers of their APS division. And we see that by adding payment services to those customers, making very direct offers that benefit the customers, both Reckon can make revenues and so can Novatti.
And in terms of acquisition opportunities, we are looking both in Australia and overseas for opportunities, M&A opportunities that will drive revenue, drive new licenses, and drive growth in our management team.
In terms of licenses, we are working with Visa and MasterCard on bringing through the final acquiring licenses. We've deployed our full acquiring business. And as I said, we are signing up many customers per month at the moment. By bringing on the acquiring licenses, we hope to be able to drive deeper margins and be able to act as more a wholesale player in the industry and be able to really accelerate our growth. And in terms of the banking license, we've said to the market we're aiming to be awarded the bank license by the end of November, we still see that we're on track for that. We are obviously very much in the hands of a regulator as well. But once we can bring through the banking license, we can really show the market the capital value that we've created.
And then also bring through the business models where we link Novatti to the bank and also the bank drives its own revenue streams as a very digital Neo bank, facing off shore markets, looking for blue sky clients in terms of new migrants and offshore residents and businesses that have a strong nexus to Australia.
So all in all, we are very, very well-funded. We have a lot of major achievements that we will bring through in FY22. And on top of revenue growth and financial growth, we will bring through major step functions of growth of the company that hopefully will reward investors.
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