The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) must consider issuing digital banking licences to fintechs as it would help increase access to financial services, says MobiKwik co-founder and chief operating officer Upasana Taku. She tells Ajay Ramanathan that the company may now be a mere 12 months away from an initial public offering.
You have posted a net profit for the third straight quarter. What are your revenue and bottom line projections for the current fiscal?
We reported revenues of around Rs 560 crore in the previous fiscal. We have posted Rs 385-crore revenue in the first half of FY24. So, it is a fairly strong 50-60% growth from the first half of last year. On an overall basis, we expect to do similar numbers. You can definitely assume that we will do as much as we have already done. We will also keep growing 15-20% month-on-month for the next six months. The main thing for us is to not only show strong growth on revenue, but also show a sustainable growth. This means that we are very focused on being profitable in every quarter. We have learnt in the last two years that you need to demonstrate growth in a profitable manner. We expect a double-digit bottom line in 2024-25.
Is a public offering much closer now than expected?
The nature in which we are building our company is far more attuned to the public market and less so to the private market. Yes, we are monitoring the market and we are also busy booking these profitable quarters. I think profitability is very important to win the trust of the public market investors. Once we think that we have done enough work and demonstrated enough profitable growth, we will consider the initial public offering. I think we are looking at a possibility of within the next 12 months or so.
Recently, the RBI has allowed the merger between a fintech and an SFB. What are your views on this development?
The fact that the RBI has shown confidence in a fintech’s ability to merge with and operate a bank is a positive. Digital payments have reached only 350 million unique Indians. Maybe it is high time for the regulator to start thinking about a digital bank licence or an open bank licence which exists in many other emerging and developed markets. There are actual licences with the help of which you can run and operate a bank without having branches. Of course, India does not have any such licence yet. I would definitely want more people at the government and regulatory think-tanks to start thinking in that direction.