One MobiKwik Systems Ltd expects to see margins improve after the Reserve Bank of India approved its application for a non-banking financial company (NBFC) licence, the company’s top executive told Mint.
This marks a key regulatory milestone for the listed fintech as it looks to deepen its lending business. The licence will sit under wholly owned subsidiary MobiKwik Financial Services Pvt Ltd.
“We have got this NBFC license to make our business more efficient and improve on margins,” said Bipin Preet Singh, chief executive officer of MobiKwik. Most of MobiKwik’s financial services revenue currently comes from lending, Singh said, adding that securing an NBFC licence is a logical next step.
Financial services is one of the two main verticals Mobikwik operates in, the other being Payments. In Q3 FY26, MobiKwik turned profitable with consolidated net profit of ₹4 crore and operating revenue of ₹289 crore, representing 7.2% year on year growth. The company turned around its business from a ₹55.3 crore loss in Q3 FY25 mainly due to an increase in its lending business.
“We already handle key parts of the lending value chain such as collections, underwriting support and customer sourcing. At present, loans distributed on the platform are priced by partner lenders,” he said. Currently, the firm does lending as a distributor in areas like personal and merchant loan distribution.
Over the longer term, owning an NBFC could allow MobiKwik to build lower-cost credit products and launch newer offerings that existing lending partners may not always be willing to underwrite, Singh said. Currently, the firm has a user base of around 186 million and 4.79 million merchants across products by April 2026 mainly in tier two and three India.
An in-house NBFC can also open up co-lending arrangements with banks and other financial institutions, potentially lowering cost of capital over time, Singh said.
The move comes as Indian fintechs increasingly seek regulated structures moving away from only distribution after years of tighter scrutiny from the Reserve Bank of India on digital lending, prepaid wallets and unsecured consumer credit.
Between 2021 and 2025 tighter rules on digital lending, first-loss default guarantees and data governance curbed growth and raised compliance costs.
After the RBI on Friday cancelled the licence of Paytm Payments Bank, more than two years after regulatory orders brought its operations to a halt, analysts said that this will also likely push the firm, a competitor to Mobikwik, to pursue an NBFC license.