BharatPe, a homegrown financial company, has been profitable five years after its establishment in 2018, according to CFO and interim CEO Nalin Negi on November 28. According to an official release, BharatPe went EBITDA positive in October and earned an annualized revenue of Rs 1,500 crore. The ARR was 31% higher than the previous year, owing mostly to considerable growth in its lending and payments businesses.
On its platform, the financial behemoth processed over Rs 640 crore in loans to its merchants in October, a 36% increase year on year. Since its entry into this market in late 2019, BharatPe has facilitated loans totaling more than Rs 12,400 crore. BharatPe also reported a monthly TPV of over Rs. 14,000 crores in October across its varied range of payment offerings.
"To achieve EBITDA positivity, the company has significantly reduced its EBITDA burn, which was averaging Rs. 60 Cr per month in FY23." This substantial milestone, combined with excellent growth, is a credit to the team's efforts, which were made possible by strategic guidance from the Board. "The company will continue to make strides towards becoming a market leading financial services platform for India's 50 million small businesses," the fintech behemoth stated in a statement. Furthermore, interim CEO Negi stated that the Peak XV Partners-backed unicorn will focus on expanding its banking, POS, and soundbox businesses.
So far, BharatPe has raised about $583 million in equity. Peak XV Partners (previously Sequoia Capital India), Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, Amplo, Beenext, Coatue Management, Dragoneer Investment Group, Steadfast Capital, Steadview Capital, and Tiger Global are among the company's notable investors.
The business announced the acquisition of PAYBACK India (Rebranded to Zillion) in June 2021, the country's largest multi-brand loyalty programme company with more than 100 million members. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) granted Centrum Financial Services Limited (Centrum) and BharatPe a Small Finance Bank (SFB) license in October 2021.
With the launch of postpe in October 2021, BharatPe entered the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) industry. postpe has been downloaded over 15 million times. The RBI granted BharatPe Group an in-principle approval to operate as an online payment aggregator in January.
"We are thrilled with the progress the company has made to reach this key profitability milestone, reaffirming the belief we have had since our seed investment that BharatPe has the potential to build a large sustainable business by solving the needs of millions of small merchants in India," said Harshjit Sethi, chief executive officer of Peak X
