The Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) share price will be one to watch this morning after an announcement by the global leader in the development of high-quality, human-annotated training data for machine learning and artificial intelligence.

What did Appen announce?

Appen’s announcement after the market close on Thursday revealed that a number of executives have been selling shares this week.

The biggest seller was Non-Executive Chairman, Chris Vonwiller. He offloaded 2 million Appen shares on-market for an average of $29.00 per share. This represents a total consideration of $58 million.

Also selling shares was the company’s CEO and Managing Director, Mark Brayan. He sold 95,535 shares for an average of $30.60 per share. This equates to a total consideration of approximately $2.9 million.

And finally, another insider that was selling shares was Non-Executive Director, Bill Pulver. Mr Pulver sold 275,000 shares on-market for an average of $30.6865 per share. This represents a total consideration of $8.4 million.

Why were they selling shares?

Appen helpfully provided explanations for each of the sales.

Mr Vonwiller sold his shares for a number of personal reasons, including philanthropic endeavours.

Whereas the company’s CEO was selling shares to satisfy tax obligations and diversify personal investments. The latter was the reason Mr Pulver gave for selling his shares.

It is worth noting that all three directors still have sizeable shareholdings, even after these sales.

Should you be concerned?

Insider selling rarely goes down well with investors. The theory is that if a director was confident its shares would go a lot higher from here, they wouldn’t sell them today. So, the decision to sell is often interpreted to be a bearish indicator.

However, I think the explanations they have given is reasonable. And as I mentioned above, they still have plenty of their wealth tied up in the company.

In light of this, if the Appen share price were to pullback meaningfully on the news, I would consider picking up shares.

After all, given the strong growth potential the company has over the next decade, I believe its shares could be a lot higher than this level in 2030.

More reading

• 3 small cap ASX tech shares that could be stars of the future
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Friday
• 3 stellar ASX growth shares I would buy right now
• Are Megaport shares the ones to buy and hold beyond 2030?
• Where to invest $5,000 into ASX 200 shares immediately

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of Appen Ltd. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The Openpay Group Ltd (ASX: OPY) share price has rocketed up by 160% since Monday. Followed hot on its heels was Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) which saw its share price rise by 59.95% so far this week. This was after announcing the acquisition of New York-based QuadPay, giving it access to the $5 trillion dollar US retail market. 

However, the higher Openpay share price rise is more intriguing. At the end of April, the company reported a 113% growth in the number of its active customers before announcing an institutional share placement on 4 June. This would raise over $30 million for the company to use towards further growth and could signal the start of a wider boom across the buy now, pay later (BNPL) sector. 

The largest Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) challenger

The rise of Afterpay to a $13.98 billion ASX behemoth has been well documented. Not so the rise of its competitors.

Zip Co is the largest independent challenger of Afterpay. Unlike Afterpay, however, Zip Co credit checks its users. This could prove to be a competitive advantage over the coming months. In times of true recession, when things get tough, unsecured debts could result in increased defaults. 

Sezzle Inc (ASX: SZL)

The Sezzle share price is up by 41.75% this week. Unlike many of the other BNPL companies on the ASX, Sezzle is headquartered in the United States. So while others are trying to buy their way in, Sezzle is a market native.

The company already boasts a network of 1.3 million users and 14.9 thousand merchants. It has also secured a fighting fund of US$100 million. In addition, the company is already making moves towards the US$460 billion Canadian retail market.

Splitit Ltd (ASX: SPT) 

The Splitit share price is up by 78.26% so far this week. The company announced an increase in merchant sales volume by 321% compared to May 2019. Also headquartered in the US, the company does not have to push its way into a foreign market. With a network of 964 merchants, it is clearly the junior player thus far.

EML Payments Ltd (ASX: EML)

EML is not immediately recognised as one of the major BNPL players. This company made its name in gift cards sold in supermarkets. However, EML is one of the great enablers of the ASX fintech sector. The EML share price has risen only 9.3% this week. I believe this to be an unfairly small gain when compared to the meteoric rise of the Openpay share price. 

Its product, ControlPay, is the technology under the hood of many BNPL companies today. It is the platform processing payments for Zip Co’s ‘shop everywhere’ functionality. It is also being used by Sezzle in the US as well as Scalapay in Italy. 

Foolish takeaway

The slow death of credit cards is being brought about by Gen Z and Millennials. This is clearly a large-scale business transformation, and one that will likely see many of the companies mentioned above grow significantly.

Even with the large rise in the Openpay share price, I think EML is best placed to benefit over the medium to long term. By operating the back-end technology that powers some of its cohorts, the company is less exposed to unsecured debt. It also gets to process payments across many companies and countries with little competitive tension. 

More reading

• 3 small cap ASX tech shares that could be stars of the future
• ASX shares are in a bull market. What should investors do now?
• 3 top ETFs you can easily diversify your portfolio with immediately
• Are Megaport shares the ones to buy and hold beyond 2030?
• Why the Splitit share price rocketed 43% higher this morning

Daryl Mather owns shares of Sezzle Inc. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of AFTERPAY T FPO, Emerchants Limited, and ZIPCOLTD FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Emerchants Limited and Sezzle Inc. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

The post Could the Openpay share price signal a wider boom for BNPL? appeared first on Motley Fool Australia.

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I’m sure most readers will be very familiar with Australian tech shares such as Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) and Appen Ltd (ASX: APX).

These tech shares have been growing at an exceptionally strong rate over the last few years and are now multi-billion dollar companies.

But it wasn’t always that way. Both companies were at one stage small cap tech shares flying under the radar.

Anyone that identified them at that stage and bought (and held onto) their shares, will have generated significant wealth.

With that in mind, I have been scouring the small cap side of the market for tech shares that I think could follow in their footsteps over the coming years.

Three small cap tech shares that I think investors should have on their watchlists are listed below. Here’s why:

Bigtincan Holdings Ltd (ASX: BTH)

The first small cap tech share to watch is Bigtincan. It is a fast-growing provider of enterprise mobility software. The company’s software allows sales and service organisations to increase their sales win rates, reduce expenditures, and improve customer satisfaction. Users achieve this through mobile worker productivity improvements. Management estimates that its total addressable market will be worth US$5 billion by 2021.

ELMO Software Ltd (ASX: ELO)

Another small cap to watch is ELMO. It is a cloud-based human resources and payroll software company. Its platform has been growing in popularity over the last few years, leading to very strong sales and earnings growth. The good news is ELMO still only has a very small share of an addressable ANZ market estimated to be worth $2.4 billion per year. And given how its platform is jurisdiction agnostic, it could grow its addressable market by expanding internationally in the future.

Whispir (ASX: WSP)

A final small cap tech share to watch is Whispir. It is a communications platform as a service (CPaaS) provider. Its industry-leading software platform allows organisations to deliver actionable two-way interactions at scale using automated multi-channel communication workflows. The CPaaS market is growing at a rapid rate and is expected to be worth US$6.7 billion per year by 2022.

More reading

• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Friday
• 3 stellar ASX growth shares I would buy right now
• ASX shares are in a bull market. What should investors do now?
• 3 top ETFs you can easily diversify your portfolio with immediately
• Are Megaport shares the ones to buy and hold beyond 2030?

James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and recommends Elmo Software. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of AFTERPAY T FPO, BIGTINCAN FPO, and Whispir Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of Appen Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended BIGTINCAN FPO, Elmo Software, and Whispir Ltd. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

The post 3 small cap ASX tech shares that could be stars of the future appeared first on Motley Fool Australia.

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