Policybazaar parent Q4 loss narrows to Rs 9 Cr, hopes to be profitable in FY24

PB Fintech, the parent of PolicyBazaar and Paisabazaar, narrowed down its consolidated losses for the fourth quarter of FY23. The online platform which offers insurance and lending products expects to achieve profitability in FY24, according to a company statement.

Consolidated loss for the three months ended March narrowed to Rs 9.34 crore from a loss of Rs 219 crore in the corresponding quarter during the last fiscal. 

The revenue from operations jumped 61% year-on-year (yoy) to Rs 869 crore during the quarter.

Of this, the existing businesses (insurance marketplace Policybazaar, and credit marketplace Paisabazaar) contributed Rs 504 crore, up by 31% YOY, while the new initiatives business's revenue grew to Rs 365 crore, up 136% YOY.

The company said its existing businesses have been adjusted EBITDA positive for more than a year with Paisabazaar individually being EBITDA positive since December 2022. Meanwhile, for new initiatives, the Adjusted EBITDA loss was down to Rs 36 crore.

“As we had guided earlier about breaking even in Q4, we are glad to announce that we broke even and our consolidated adjusted EBITDA was a positive Rs 28 Crore for Q4 which is a 3% EBITDA margin, an improvement from minus Rs 80 Crore (-15% margin) same quarter last year,” read the statement. 

EBITDA is short for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.

What aided growth in Q4? 

The credit business has been EBITDA positive since December 2022, marking a run rate of Rs 15,000 crore disbursal and 5.3 lakh credit card issuance on an annualised basis, as of March 2023.

The company says about 35 million customers have accessed their credit scores on the platform.

"Co-created product strategy is shaping up well with six products like Step-up Card, Duet Credit Card, Credit-line products - all gaining good traction," said PB Fintech's statement.

The company's agent aggregator platform, PB Partners, has the highest proportion of non-motor business at 34% and is present in 15,000 pin codes across India. Meanwhile, PB Fintech said its UAE business has grown 2.7 times on a year-on-year basis.  

Meanwhile, its expenses ballooned from Rs 811.26 crore in the same period last fiscal to Rs 960.8 crore.

Annual performance 

The fintech firm closed its FY23 at a revenue of Rs 2557.84, marking a growth of about 80% over FY22, aided by growth in existing business, even as the expenses shot up to Rs 3304.6 crore from Rs 2383.6 crore the previous year.

However, the company managed to almost halve its consolidated loss to Rs 487.93 crore for FY23.

During its analyst call, Yashish Dhaiya, Co-founder and CEO of Policybazaar, said the company has not received any official update on Bima Sugam, an insurance platform that will be responsible for the sale, servicing, and claims of insurance policies, backed by the insurance regulator IRDAI.

“We haven’t specifically heard anything. Any platform is a welcome change, it is great for us to have access to more services. This should help us expand our services,” he said. 

Shares of PB Fintech ended Monday at Rs 617.95 apiece on NSE, up 1.87%. Over the last 52 weeks, the company has seen its share price tank almost 74% to Rs 386 in October last year from an all-time high of Rs 1,470 in November.