PayU India’s revenue grew by 56% in the first half of FY22, says Prosus

Payment gateway and credit company PayU India saw a 72 percent growth in total payments value (TPV) to $18.9 billion in the first half of the financial year 2021-2022.

PayU India’s parent Prosus said in its half-yearly financial update that the company also saw a 56 percent growth in revenues during the period, despite India witnessing the destructive second wave of Covid-19 during the beginning of the financial year.

This is a 44 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the last two years in TPV and 30 percent in revenues for the payment player.

The company said that the revenue growth was driven by traction from Wibmo, Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) and omnichannel modes; and non-MDR (merchant discount rate) products like affordability, payouts and subscription.

The revenue growth in the Indian market also aided Prosus’ global revenue growth for the fintech and payments segment which grew by 42 percent to $359 million during the period.

This growth comes at a time when PayU India is awaiting the closure of its acquisition of payment gateway BillDesk for $4.7 billion which the company announced in September 2021.

The past year since the beginning of the pandemic has also augured well for PayU as India saw a spurt in adoption of digital modes of payments. Prosus said that the growth in volumes came in despite a drop in travel and hospitality-related transactions.

On the growth witnessed in India, the financial report by Prosus read, “This is a result of diversifying our merchant portfolio into segments such as financial services, ecommerce and bill payments, compensating for the decline in categories impacted by Covid-19.”

PayU India is set to be scouting for more investment opportunities in India in the area of digital financial services. In an interview after the announcement of the BillDesk deal, PayU India’s CEO Anirban Mukherjee had told Moneycontrol that the company will continue to follow a mix of organic and inorganic strategies.

With the impending acquisition, Prosus said India remains a strategic market for PayU and the business will continue to scale at a quick pace.

“The opportunity in India is very attractive: the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reports 44 billion digital transactions processed in 2020 and forecasts 200 million new users expected to adopt digital payments over the next three years, with average annual transactions per capita rising tenfold from 22 to 220,” the report further read.

PayU’s buyout of BillDesk is the second largest internet deal in India after Walmart Inc’s acquisition of e-commerce company Flipkart in 2018. It took investments by Prosus in India to over $10 billion.

The combined entity is set to become one of the top 10 online payments providers globally with an estimated TPV of $147 billion as seen in FY21 and over 4 billion transactions, four times PayU’s current size in India, according to Prosus.