MobiKwik raises ₹52 crore from HT group, Kris Gopalakrishnan’s family office

Bengaluru: Digital payments and financial services startup MobiKwik on Friday said that it has raised ₹52 crore in a fresh round of funding led by Hindustan Media Ventures, the investment arm of HT group. The round also saw participation from Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan’s family office Pratithi.

According to the Gurugram-based company, the fresh capital will be used for growing its key business segments including its digital credit business, consumer payments as well as its payment gateway subsidiary, Zaakpay.

In July 2019, MobiKwik had raised close to ₹8.67 crore from venture debt firm Trifecta Capital and media company NDTV.

“The HT group and Kris coming on board is ... an endorsement in our business model of bringing digital credit to 100 million Indians. We are on the road to IPO and look forward to their guidance on building a long-lasting sustainable company and creating impact via financial inclusion,” said Bipin Preet Singh, co-founder & CEO at MobiKwik.

MobiKwik had revealed its plans to go public last year, and is looking to list on exchanges by 2022. The company also plans to become profitable by the end of this fiscal year, Mint had reported earlier.

“MobiKwik has carved out a unique spot for itself with its digital credit card model within India’s fintech ecosystem. The company has demonstrated good financial performance by scaling revenue while becoming breakeven profitable. We are excited to partner with the company in its growth journey," said Piyush Gupta, group CFO and CEO Strategic Investments, HT group.

In July, MobiKwik said its revenues grew by 133% year-on-year to ₹379 crore in 2019-20. It also reduced its Ebitda loss by 60% to ₹45 crore in FY20.

MobiKwik currently has three business lines -- consumer payments, financial services (which houses its digital lending, insurance and mutual fund offerings) and payment gateway (Zaakpay).

In the consumer payments vertical, MobiKwik saw its net revenue double to ₹230 crore in FY20 compared to ₹89 crore in FY19. While, its financial services vertical also witnessed 3x growth, with revenues climbing to ₹91 crore in FY20, on the back of its digital credit offerings.

“A successful new business is one which creates jobs, is sustainable, and can run for a long time. The MobiKwik team is executing with this vision and I am happy to support and encourage them," said Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-Founder & former co-Chairman of Infosys.

The company also said that it has seen significant traction in its digital credit card business and has pre-approved 15 million users for its credit product, which is availed by users for making payments via the MobiKwik wallet and the MobiKwik Blue Amex Card.