The IPO of digital payments and lending platform PayU has been postponed to 2026 as the company’s losses continue to increase, Nico Marais, CFO of Dutch investor Prosus said on Monday.
Prosus owns 100% of PayU and has been planning to list the company since late 2023.
“That (IPO) is not going to be our focus in the next year. Our focus is actually going to be to improve that business,” Marais told Reuters.
Meanwhile, in its annual report, released on Monday, Prosus said, “The year ahead will be a period of building for PayU on the back of initiatives started late in FY25 to improve its profitability profile.”
While the total revenue for PayU increased 24% to $669 million during the year that ended on March 31, its adjusted EBIT loss rose by 38% to $44 million as compared to $32 million in FY24.
The company’s revenue from payment services increased 12% to $498 million, and its total payment volume rose 14% to over $80 billion.
Moreover, the company’s payment business reached a breakeven during H2FY25 due to continued focus on cost optimisation and scale
“To accelerate the business growth, we have reorganised the payments business with dedicated teams focusing on key account management or acquiring new customers in existing segments as well as forging new partnerships,” the investor said.
PayU was barred from onboarding new merchants by the Reserve Bank of India for 15 months. The ban was lifted in April 2024, and later it was authorised to operate as a payment aggregator.
Prosus said that since then, PayU India has added around 13,000 new merchants.
“As these merchants ramp up, there will be an acceleration of performance,” it said.
“We aim to restore its profitability,” it added.
PayU competes with Tiger Global-backed Razorpay and Walmart-owned PhonePe for its core payments operation here. It also facilitates loans to customers and small businesses.
It has recently acquired Mindgate Solutions for $68 million, a real-time payments technology business, to enhance its offering and improve the operational efficiencies.