MobiKwik hires advisers to set ball rolling on IPO

New Delhi: In line with its plans to go public in 2022, fintech firm MobiKwik has appointed investment banks ICICI Securities and IIFL, besides a few law firms, to kickstart the work on the draft red herring prospectus, two people in the know said, seeking anonymity.

MobiKwik is also in talks with a few more investment banks to bring them on board to manage the initial public offering (IPO), said one of the two people cited above. “They will go for a domestic IPO.”

Several Indian startups in the fintech and consumer payments space, such as Paytm and PhonePe, are planning to go public.

Valued at $16 billion, Paytm’s IPO is expected in 2022, while PhonePe, which is currently valued at $7 billion, may go public in 2023, according to news reports.

Mint reported on 16 February that online insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar is in the process of hiring investment banks to manage its proposed ₹4,000-crore IPO.

Several other consumer internet companies, such as Zomato, are also working on their IPOs.

“The IPO will help the company raise fresh funds to continue its growth trajectory, but also provide an exit for its earlier investors. A large part of the IPO is expected to be sale of shares by existing investors,” said the second person cited above.

MobiKwik, ICICI Securities and IIFL declined to comment on Mint’s queries.

To prepare for its IPO, MobiKwik has been making changes to its top management. Senior vice president Chandan Joshi was named as a co-founder, though he was not part of the founding team of Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku.

Joshi will assume the role of chief executive of the payments business, which drives 75% of the company’s revenue, said MobiKwik.

The Gurugram-based company reported strong financial results in FY20 with net revenue growing at 133% year-on-year to ₹379 crore and cash Ebitda loss reduction of 91% year-on-year to ₹8.5 crore. Ebitda is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

According to media reports, the company is eyeing profitability in FY22 with a revenue target of more than ₹750 crore.

The company has so far raised $110 million ( ₹797 crore) in funding since its inception. Last December, it had raised ₹52 crore led by Hindustan Media Ventures, the investment arm of HT Group.

MobiKwik was started in 2009 as a consumer payments platform. It has evolved into a fintech company offering financial products including loans, gold investment and mutual funds. It also has its own payment gateway, Zaakpay.

Credit products have been a key area of interest for the company in recent years.

In January, MobiKwik announced Home Credit money app, a joint venture with Home Credit India, to provide instant interest-free loans of ₹1,500-10,000.

Since 2018, MobiKwik has pre-approved 15 million users for its digital credit card.

Currently, MobiKwik has more than 120 million users and 3 million merchants, the company said.

MobiKwik entered the mutual fund space with the acquisition of Mumbai-based startup Clearfunds in 2018.

The company’s consumer payments revenue in FY2020 was ₹230 crore, up from ₹89 crore a year ago, while fintech revenue rose to ₹91 crore in FY2020 from ₹29 crore a year ago.