MobiKwik nine-month revenue up 86 pc; breaks even in Q3 for first time

IPO-hopeful MobiKwik on Wednesday posted an 86 percent increase in its nine-month revenue to Rs 396.6 crore led by strong growth in its consumer payments, BNPL (buy now, pay later), and payment gateway businesses.

For the full year, the startup is projecting between Rs 550 and Rs 600 crore in revenue.

Adjusted loss (EBITDA) for the nine months ended December 21, however, widened to Rs 78.4 crore from Rs 57.9 crore in the year-ago period, as expenses related to people and technology continued to make a dent.

In a conversation with YourStory, Upasana Taku, Co-founder and COO, MobiKwik, said, for the third quarter ending December 21, the startup broke even for the first time in its history. It expects to post a profit in the ongoing fourth quarter, and for the full financial year, she added.

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All three businesses at MobiKwik showed strong growth in the nine months, including its youngest buy now, pay later unit, which contributes less than 25 percent to overall revenue. However, since margins are higher in this unit versus others, the startup is fleshing it out and pushing more aggressively to get new users.

Upasana said MobiKwik's strategy for its BNPL business is to service borrowers at the lower end of the value chain — those who are not credit bureau-heavy or have not availed of a loan before — helping them build their credit profile by borrowing smaller sums and then turn them on to bigger loan products.

At present, MobiKwik's average ticket size for BNPL loans is Rs 3,245. Its provision for credit losses improved to 1.77 percent as of December-end versus nearly 5 percent earlier, even as it made out more BNPL loans, which Upasana said, is a testament to the startup's superior underwriting practices.

"This year, we're definitely looking to grow BNPL, as well as our payment gateway. There are a couple of newer products we've launched, where we're focussed on the 0 to 10X growth," Upasana added.

As far as MobiKwik's IPO roadmap goes, Upasana said the plan is to still list on the Indian exchanges, and appropriate licenses from SEBI have been received. However, given the market volatility and bearish investor sentiment, the startup is "waiting and watching".

"We're ready - we're just looking for a little sunshine in the markets," Upasana said.