BharatPe turns profitable 5 years after launch, reports annualised revenue of Rs 1,500 crore

Homegrown fintech major BharatPe has turned profitable five years after it was launched in 2018, CFO and interim CEO Nalin Negi said on November 28. In an official statement, the company said that BharatPe has turned Ebitda  positive in October and recored an annualised revenue of Rs 1,500 crore. The ARR was  31 per cent more than from the year ago period mainly on the back of significant growth in its lending and payments business.

The fintech major facilitated over Rs 640 crore worth of loans to its merchants in October on its platform, which is a 36 per cent more than on a year-on-year basis. In all, BharatPe has facilitated loans totaling over Rs 12,400 crore since its foray into this segment in late 2019.

BharatPe, in October, also recorded a monthly TPV of over Rs. 14,000 crores across its diverse range of payment products.

"The company has significantly cut down its EBITDA burn—which was averaging at Rs. 60 Cr per month in FY23—to attain EBITDA positivity. This significant milestone in conjunction with strong growth is a testament to the efforts of the team, enabled by strategic guidance from the Board. The company will continue taking strides toward being a market leading financial services platform for the 50 million small businesses across India," the fintech giant said in its statement.

Further, interim CEO Negi said the Peak XV Partners-backed unicorn will focus on further scaling its lending, Point of Sale (POS), and soundbox businesses.

BharatPe has raised over US$ 583 million in equity till date. The company’s list of marquee investors includes Peak XV Partners (formerly known as Sequoia Capital India), Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, Amplo, Beenext, Coatue Management,Dragoneer Investment Group, Steadfast Capital,Steadview Capital and Tiger Global.

In June 2021, the company announced the acquisition of PAYBACK India (Rebranded to Zillion), the country’s largest multi-brand loyalty program company with 100 million+ members. 
In October 2021, the consortium of Centrum Financial Services Limited (Centrum) and BharatPe, was issued a Small Finance Bank (SFB) license by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

BharatPe entered the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) segment with the launch of postpe in October 2021. postpe has over 15 million downloads. In January this, BharatPe Group received an in-principle nod from the RBI to operate as an online payment aggregator.

"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,” Harshjit Sethi, MD, Peak XV said.