Mintifi, a supply-chain finance business, has raised USD 180 million in a Series E fundraising round headed by GTV and Prosus this month. The funding follows Mintifi's 4X increase in profit after tax (PAT) and 72% year-on-year increase in operating scale in FY24. While we'll get into Mintifi's spending pattern later in the article, let's start with its income streams and how they've grown in the last fiscal year.

Mintifi's operational income increased to Rs 384 crore in FY24 from Rs 223 crore in FY23, according to its consolidated annual financial records submitted with the Registrar of Companies (ROC). Mintifi, founded in 2017 by Anup Agarwal, Ankit Mehta, and Sanjoy Shome, focuses on the last-mile distribution network and provides payment, invoicing, and financing solutions to small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) across industries.

Interest income from loan disbursements accounted for 80% of revenue, which climbed by two times to Rs 308 crore in the previous fiscal year. The remainder of the income came from the sale of items (textiles) reported as inventory that distributors/retailers purchased on a delayed payment basis. Mintifi also earned Rs 17 crore in interest on current assets, boosting its total revenue to Rs 401 crore, up 76.6% year on year from Rs 227 crore in FY23.

The Mumbai-based firm's employee perks expense increased by 65% to Rs. 66 crore inThe Mumbai-based company's employee benefits expense increased by 65% to Rs 66 crore in FY24, while inventory procurement cost Rs 70 crore during the same time. To scale, its finance costs grew by 54% to Rs 54 crore in the previous fiscal year. Its legal, training, recruitment, impairment losses, and other overheads increased the Premji Invest-backed firm's overall cost by 44.3% to Rs277 crore in FY24, up from Rs 192 crore in FY23.

The huge increase in size and regulated expenditure enabled Mintifi to increase its profits by 3.7 times to Rs 92.5 crore in FY24 from Rs 24.8 crore in FY23. The ROCE and EBITDA margins increased to 12.2% and 46.7%, respectively. Mintifi's expense-to-earnings ratio was Rs 0.72. According to the annual report, its current assets stood at Rs 2,343 crore as of March 2024, with Rs 200 crore in cash and bank balances.

Mintifi has raised about USD 340 million to date, including a recent USD 180 million round of main and secondary fundraising that valued the company at USD 850 million. Notable investors in the seven-year-old company include Prosus, Elevation Capital, Premji Invest, and Lok Capital, among others.

Several supply chain financing businesses have raised funds in recent years. Vayana Network, 3SC, Wiz Freight, CashInvoice, M1xchange, Progcap, FinAGG Technologies, CredAble, and Veefin. Check TheKredible for their funding and most recent financials.

While Mintifi has created a company around financing due to inefficiencies in public sector bank lending and the banking sector as a whole, it is seeing rising competition from other companies. The other firms began by offering a broader range of solutions before realizing that financing was the only need that could be met profitably and at a reasonable scale. Minitifi has definitely proven enough acumen to earn the trust of investors to build up substantially, and at this rate, it could be in line for another Initial Public Offering in 2025, possibly at unicorn-plus valuations.