BharatPe turns EBITDA positive; clocks October 2023 as the first profitable month

Fintech unicorn BharatPe on Tuesday announced that it has turned EBITDA positive in October with annualised revenue crossing Rs 1,500 crore.

Without giving out the actual number, BharatPe in a statement said the financial milestone was attributed to consistent growth across all business lines.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) is a measure of core corporate profitability.

The fintech, which allows merchants to accept payments from any of the several apps popular among consumers, "has turned EBITDA positive in October 2023", the statement said, adding its annualised revenue has surged past Rs 1,500 crore, registering a growth of 31 per cent from FY23 (April 2022 to March 2023 fiscal year).

"The company has also significantly cut down its EBITDA burn -- which was averaging at Rs 60 crore per month in FY23 -- to attain EBITDA positivity," it said.

BharatPe said it experienced consistent growth in its lending vertical over the past several months.

In October, it facilitated loans exceeding Rs 640 crore for its merchants in partnership with its NBFC partners, a spike of 36 per cent year-on-year.

BharatPe has facilitated loans totalling over Rs 12,400 crore since its foray into this segment in late 2019.

"Additionally, it recorded growth across verticals - including its payment products. The company also saw remarkable growth in the number and amount of transactions done on its soundbox devices.

BharatPe, in October, also recorded a monthly TPV of over Rs 14,000 crores across its diverse range of payment products," the statement said.

Total payment volume (TPV) measures the gross value of payments successfully processed through a payments platform over a given timeframe.

Speaking on the milestone, Nalin Negi, CFO and interim CEO, BharatPe, said, "BharatPe was started with the vision of empowering millions of offline merchants and MSMEs across the country, with best-in-class fintech products. This milestone reflects the trust bestowed upon us by our vast network of over 1.3 crores merchant partners." October, he said, was a great month for Bharatpe. "We achieved significant growth with loans facilitated on our platform. Also, our digital payments verticals grew considerably, boasting a monthly transaction count exceeding 37 crores." "We will continue to cater to the needs of our merchant partners as well as customers and our strategic focus will be to ensure sustained profitability across our business lines. 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," he said.

Negi said this achievement was a testament to the dedication and hard work of the team. "Moving forward, we continue to stay committed to build a sustainable business with growth across business lines. We will continue to focus on driving financial inclusion across Bharat, empowering more offline merchant businesses. Our goal is to establish BharatPe as one of the largest merchant-first fintech companies in the country." Founded in 2018, BharatPe has a registered network of over 1.3 crore merchants across 450+ cities. The company processes payments of annualized transaction processed value (TPV) of over Rs 1.7 lakh crore.

BharatPe has raised over USD 583 million in equity till date with its marquee investors include Peak XV Partners (formerly known as Sequoia Capital India), Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, and Tiger Global.

In January 2023, BharatPe Group received an in-principle nod from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as an online payment aggregator.

BharatPe is also a promoter in TrillionLoans, a NBFC (Non- Banking Financial Company).