Fintech firm Mobikwik becomes operationally profitable, eyes IPO

Digital payments company MobiKwik on Tuesday said that it has turned operationally profitable, on an annual run rate basis, riding on the back of its financial services business. The Gurugram-based firm which started its operations in 2009, is looking at further scaling its lending portfolio and achieve profitability on a full year basis in FY21.

“Once we hit this landmark milestone, we will march forward towards an IPO in 2023-24,” said said Upasana Taku, co-founder, MobiKwik.

The company, backed by investors such as Sequoia Capital India and Cisco, had posted an operational loss of Rs 12 crore in August last year. Taku said that in the just ended month, the company has turned Ebidta positive, though she declined to give the exact figure. “From here on, we will now be going in a positive direction.”

The company says that since the digital payments business is dependent on UPI platform, players operating in this space hardly make any revenue. Thus, MobiKwik has decided to shift gears to the financial services business, majorly focusing on lending. According to Taku, the firm’s revenue was Rs 218 crore in January this year which has jumped to Rs 430 crore now.

MobiKwik, which competes with firms such as Paytm and PhonePe in the payments space, branched out to lending segment last year after realizing that the company has a big asset in the form of data from its around 100 million payments users. This data was utilised to come up with an alternate credit score and the lending platform was set up early last year. Using data of customers from MobiScore, its in-house alternate credit rating platform, MobiKwik offers them loans in the range of Rs 2,000 to Rs 2 lakh.

Since starting its digital lending business in January 2018, the company claims to have lent loans to around 7 lakh customers. MobiKwik’s fintech portfolio already accounts for 25 per cent to its overall revenue, while the rest come from its existing consumer payments business.

Over the next few years, the company plans to grow its payments platform to reach 250 million Indians and its financial products to reach at least 30 per cent of its users. “We will launch more innovative products in financial services catering to the diverse needs of users and merchants. We will also geographically expand by replicating our Indian success story in multiple South Asian countries,” said Taku.