 "Nalin Negi, BharatPe")
Fintech startup BharatPe turned Ebitda positive in October, clocking annualised revenue of Rs 1,500 crore, a 31 per cent increase from financial year 2023 (FY23).
The Gurugram-based company said it turned Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortisation) positive on the back of business growth across and reduced burn, which averaged Rs 60 crore per month in FY23.
“This milestone reflects the trust bestowed upon us by our vast network of over 13 million merchant partners. October was a great month for us – we achieved significant growth with loans facilitated on our platform,” said Nalin Negi, chief financial officer and interim chief executive officer (CEO) of BharatPe.
The company is aiming to achieve profitability for a complete fiscal in the upcoming year.
“We see ourselves as an evolving entity with the aim of attaining profitability for the full fiscal next year. We will continue to build the loan facilitation mechanism through co-creating a new-age NBFC, followed by strengthening the merchant network,” BharatPe said in an emailed response to Business Standard.
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It added that it is working towards reaching double digit margins.
“The company is optimistic about reaching double-digit margins in the near future. The initial goal was to achieve profitability within a month and maintain consistency, progressing from monthly to quarterly, halfway, and eventually to an annual basis,” it said.
The fintech firm explained it derives 55 per cent of its revenues from interest income generated through credit, with the rest coming from fees associated with its payments and merchant subscription products, which includes its Swipe devices.
BharatPe’s loan disbursements to its merchant base in October grew 36 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to more than Rs 640 crore. It has facilitated loans worth Rs 12,400 crore since entering the lending business in 2019.
Its digital payments vertical has 370 million transactions monthly. It said it had a total payment volume (TPV) of Rs 14,000 crore across payment products in October.
“In the coming months, we will focus on scaling our lending, POS (point-of-sale), and soundbox businesses. We will also focus on launching new products tailored for our merchant partners while concentrating on the development of our consumer and NBFC businesses," said Negi.
The company said its POS business processes payments worth more than Rs 29,000 crore annually.
Coatue, Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global, Peak XV partners (previously Sequoia Capital India) are among BharatPe’s investors.
“Over the past two years, the company has expanded the board by adding strong independent directors, secured key licenses from RBI, attracted top financial services and technology talent and set in place a strong internal governance framework,” said Harshjit Sethi, managing director of Peak XV.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) granted a small finance bank licence to BharatPe in October 2021. In the same month, the company entered the 'buy now, pay later' segment by launching Postpe, an app which has more than 15 million downloads.
Earlier this year, the company received the RBI’s in-principle approval to operate as an online payment aggregator.
