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Fintech firm BharatPe is targeting an initial public offering (IPO) in the next 18-24 months with the company expecting profitability at an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and ammotisation (Ebitda) level for FY25, chief executive officer (CEO) Nalin Negi said.
As the firm looks to expand presence in consumer-facing businesses, it plans to roll out products such as a co-branded credit card in partnership with Unity Small Finance Bank (Unity SFB), and offerings like mutual funds and insurance, including a credit line on Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
“We are working towards becoming Ebitda profitable in FY25, and we’re very certain about it.
"What we look forward to in the next financial year is launching new products, stabilising them and getting some traction on the consumer side,” Negi told Business Standard in an interaction.
The Delhi-based company, which began operations in 2018 with merchant-focused services, expanded into consumer-facing businesses in 2024 by introducing UPI, digital gold-based wealth management and bill payments, among others.
Negi was appointed CEO of the company in April 2024 after serving as interim CEO and chief financial officer (CFO).
He added that BharatPe plans to wind down its peer-to-peer (P2P) lending business completely by the end of March this year.
It entered the segment in August 2021 under the brand name 12% Club.
The decision comes after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) revised norms for P2P lending in August after flagging regulatory violations by some non-banking financial companies (NBFC)-P2P firms.
“Customer onboarding is completely paused and we stopped it the very day when the guidelines came in.
"We have started exiting that business by doing orderly withdrawals and by the end of March, the P2P balance would be a negligible number,” he added.
BharatPe has a base of 2.5 million active merchants.
Cumulatively, the firm has 18 million registered merchants on the platform.
“We are focussed on monetising our current merchant base. We do that by facilitating loans through NBFCs, or sell them devices which could be a soundbox, a point-of-sale (PoS) device, enable them with credit card on UPI, among other cross-sell options,” he added.
It has deployed its payment acceptance devices to about 60-65 per cent of its active merchant base.
The company facilitates lending products to its users in partnership with seven NBFCs with plans to add three more this year.
Negi stressed that the firm was litigation free and had made changes at the management level in order to maintain corporate governance.
The company and its former co-founder Ashneer Grover settled a long-standing legal dispute in September last year.
Resilient Innovations, the parent company of BharatPe, is scouting for investors to sell up to 25 per cent of its 49 per cent stake in Unity SFB.
The move is in line with regulatory requirements to reduce its holding in the bank to 10 per cent, according to the licensing requirements.
Negi acknowledged that the company was purging down its stake in the bank without divulging details on stake sale.
“We need to reduce the stake. The only thing I can say is that whatever people have invested, the current valuation is far, far better,” he said.
