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Payments major Mobikwik believes it is on the path to profitability and will wait for its audited numbers for April to December 2021 before launching an initial public offering in the early part of the new year 2022.
“We have got SEBI approval to go for an IPO in early November and it is valid for one year without any further filings. So, we can go to the market anytime up to November 22. I don't think it is a race getting to the public market. It is an important milestone for every company,” said Upasana Taku, Co-Founder and COO, MobiKwik.
“Given the flurry of IPOs, that is seen around Diwali, we didn't feel it was the right time for us even though we had all the approvals in place. It makes sense for us to come back to the market when it is a little more stabilised and not necessarily influenced by a couple of IPOs,” she further said.
In an interaction with BusinessLine , Taku said the company has been following a growth-focussed strategy and would like to showcase it to investors.
“The business performance is showcased in the capital markets by virtue of audited numbers that you present. That’s why we are waiting for December to end and then, we will come with our audited numbers for April to December 2021,” she said, adding that this would showcase the company’s revenue performance and the path to profitability in terms of the cost control and the loss control.
“We believe we'll be able to differentiate ourselves in the minds of the investors and therefore, we aspire to do a good IPO,” she said.
Turning profitable
Taku said the fintech company has also set itself a goal to turn profitable over the next few quarters.
“All of our businesses, whether it’s the consumer payments business or the BNPL business, we have been contribution margin-profitable for the last three years,” she said.
According to its draft prospectus, in 2020-21, Mobikwik’s revenue from operations were down at ₹288.57 crore compared to ₹355.67 crore in 2019-20.
Total income fell 18.3 per cent to ₹302.25 crore in 2020-21 from a year ago. Its loss for the year 2020-21 rose 11.4 per cent to ₹111.3 crore from ₹99.92 crore in 2019-20.
On concerns over the lacklustre response to the Paytm IPO impacting the mood for other fintech public offerings, Taku said Mobikwik is a very different company and it should not be a case of comparing apples to oranges.
“Just because we are a fintech company doesn’t mean that it should be compared with any other recently listed company. We have not raised $3 billion dollars privately. We’ve never blown up $500 million in losses in a year. In our 12 years of existence, we have raised a $120 million,” she said.
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