BharatPe turns Ebitda positive for the first time in October, clocks ARR of Rs 1,500 crore

BharatPe

BharatPe has turned Ebitda  positive in October and clocked an annualised revenue of Rs 1,500 crore, up 31 percent from the year ago period on the back of significant growth in its lending and payments business, the fintech unicorn said on November 28.

The company also significantly cut down its burn, which was averaging at Rs 60 crore a month in FY23, to attain  a positive Ebitda, the firm said in a statement. Ebitda is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.

"This milestone reflects the trust bestowed upon us by our vast network of over 1.3 crore merchant partners. October was a great month for us — we achieved significant growth with loans facilitated on our platform," said Nalin Negi, CFO and Interim CEO, BharatPe.

Annual run rate or ARR is a metric used to project upcoming revenue based on current earnings, assuming a company will grow at the same pace in the coming months.

Moneycontrol was the first to report on October 23 that the fintech major clocked its highest-ever gross revenue of $23.5 million (around Rs 200 crore) for the month of August 2023, mainly due to revenue from its lending business as well as its foray into other services such as Point of Sale devices.

In October, BharatPe facilitated loans exceeding Rs 640 crores for its merchants in partnership with its NBFC partners, a year-on-year growth of 36 percent. BharatPe facilitated loans totaling over Rs 12,400 crores since its foray into this segment in late 2019.

BharatPe also recorded a monthly Total Payments Volume (TPV) of over Rs 14,000 crore across its payment products in October.

"In the coming months, we'll focus on scaling our lending, POS, and soundbox businesses. We will also focus on launching new products tailored for our merchant partners while concentrating on the development of our consumer and NBFC businesses." Negi added.

BharatPe has a network of over 1.3 crore merchants across over 450 cities and is one of the leading players in UPI offline transactions, processing more than 370 million UPI transactions. Its POS business processes payments worth more than Rs 29,000 crore annually.

The pick-up in growth will not only give a fillip to its plans for a public listing but also comes as a relief after the high drama that roiled the startup in 2022 , precipitated by the exit of its controversial co-founder Ashneer Grover.

Some of its prominent investors include Ribbit Capital, Coatue, Insight Partners and Peak XV partners (previously Sequoia Capital India).

"Over the past two years, the company has expanded the board by adding strong independent directors, secured key licenses from RBI, attracted top financial services and technology talent and set in place a strong internal governance framework. These steps combined with strong execution by the team puts BharatPe firmly on a path where it is gearing up to be a public company," Harshjit Sethi, MD, Peak XV, said.

(This is a developing story, please check back for more)