PayU India's revenues jumped by 48 percent to $304 million in the financial year 2021-22, led by a growth in total payment volumes (TPV), parent Prosus said as it announced its results for the year on June 27.
India is the largest market for the Dutch technology investment company's payments and financial services vertical and Prosus is in the process of acquiring payment gateway Billdesk to expand its offerings. The $4.7- billion acquisition which was announced in August 2021, is being reviewed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
TPVs in India grew by 65 percent to $43.8 billion and the growth was driven by diversification of the merchant portfolio into segments such as financial services, e-commerce and bill payments, which compensated for lower volumes from categories impacted by Covid-19, the company said.
The company's credit-linked Visa card offering LazyCard launched in December 2021 recorded total loan disbursals of $586 million till March 31, 2022. The loan book stood at $151 million at the end of the year.
"Revenue is recognised over the term of these loans, however, we are required to expense the expected loss rate upfront, resulting in elevated losses at present as we are at the start of the journey to scale the credit business," the report said.
LayPay's LazyCard has come under the scrutiny of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) along with other domestic fintech players such as Slice and Uni, with the regulator saying that loading of credit lines into prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) like wallets and prepaid cards is prohibited.
LazyCard is issued by the company's partner bank SBM Bank India, while the loans offered through these cards come from their non-banking finance company (NBFC) partners.
Slice and Uni, too, disburse credit through these models. The RBI's clarification has raised questions over the legitimacy of these models and industry bodies are seeking further clarity from the regulator.
PayU India's lending business has a preapproved user base of 62 million and 46,000 active merchants.
"Our new initiatives to ramp up personal loans such as Xpress loans (cross-sell to buy-now-pay-later users) have also seen good traction and are expected to further drive loan disbursals and enhance revenue," Prosus said.
The contribution of India revenue from new segments such as omnichannel, Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), Wibmo, data science and other new products increased from 20 percent in FY21 to 29 percent in FY22.
Besides payments and financial services, Prosus has invested in ed-tech leader Byju's, food-delivery platform Swiggy, home-services company Urban Company, to name a few.
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