Fintech firm BharatPe has reported its first-ever adjusted profit before tax of Rs 6 crore in FY25, excluding Esop expenses, marking a sharp turnaround from a loss of Rs 342 crore in the preceding year. Even at a net level, losses for the year were significantly lower at Rs 88 crore, as the company benefited from better control over its credit costs, said CEO Nalin Negi.
“We’ve built a business with a lot of variable costs, so if something doesn’t work, we can exit quickly, rather than being stuck with a fixed cost. That flexibility, along with revenue growth and cost optimisation, helped improve the bottom line by quite a big margin,” Negi told Fe in an interaction.
The Path to Profitability: Revenue Growth and Cost Control
He added that in FY25, there was a one-time exceptional gain from a certain investment of Rs 71 crore, which is excluded from the profit before tax. On the revenue front, BharatPe reported a 17% rise in operating revenue to Rs 1,667 crore, as it doubled down on its core payments and lending verticals.
“The second half of FY25, especially July to December, was impacted by regulatory actions that also dampened market sentiments. April to June was our best-ever quarter, and we bounced back after December. I believe FY25 was an anomaly, and we expect better revenue growth going forward,” Negi added.
Despite a slower rate of growth in FY25, compared to the 38% revenue jump it had seen in FY24, the company has managed to post an adjusted Ebitda of Rs 141 crore in FY25, compared to a loss of Rs 209 crore in the year before that.
Strategic Expansion: Beyond Payments to a Full-Stack Fintech
BharatPe, which started by enabling interoperable UPI QR payments for merchants, has expanded across multiple fronts, including increasing its stake in NBFC arm Trillionloans to 74%, to bolster its position in the digital lending space. The company is also investing in new verticals such as Invest BharatPe (wealth-tech) and its TPAP (third-party UPI app) offerings, both of which are currently being scaled.
“These are still early-stage. The TPAP app has moved from just a payment layer to now offering credit cards, personal loans, and soon, credit on UPI. Invest BharatPe currently offers digital gold and fixed deposits, while mutual funds and insurance will follow,” Negi said, adding that the aim is to cross-sell more financial products to its existing merchant base.
“Just adding merchants is a cost. We’ve figured out how to grow the base and monetise at the same time so that growth pays for itself,” he noted.
BharatPe has over 1.7 crore merchants in its network across more than 450 cities in India, particularly tier 2 and 3 cities, processing more than 450 million UPI transactions monthly worth nearly Rs 12,000 crore. In payments, BharatPe received final RBI authorisation in April to operate as an online payment aggregator, enabling the company to deepen its footprint among merchants beyond large cities.
The company has also been looking to sell up to a 25% stake in Unity Small Finance Bank, but Negi noted that the market conditions are currently not right for a stake sale. “We are open to selling our stake in Unity SFB, partially or fully, if we find the right long-term partner. There’s still time as per licensing norms, and we’re exploring our options,” he added.
Over the past few years, BharatPe has been embroiled in a legal dispute with former co-founder Ashneer Grover over alleged financial misconduct and fund misappropriation. The matter was settled in 2024, with Grover formally cutting ties with the company and transferring a portion of his shares to a trust.