Lendingkart, an MSME-focused digital lending platform, is on track to register a revenue of around Rs 825-850 crore in FY23 on the back of a growing loan book. At the same time, the Ahmedabad-based company aims to close the current financial year with a profit after tax (PAT) of about Rs 130-140 crore, co-founder and CEO, Harshvardhan Lunia told FE.
That comes after the startup registered a revenue growth of 24% year-on-year (y-o-y) to reach Rs 616 crore in FY22, while incurring a loss of Rs 203 crore during the same period. Lunia said his company adjusted all the Covid-related damage in FY22 which resulted in losses mounting 7x from Rs 28.4 crore in FY21.
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The company aims to end FY23 with a loan book of over Rs 5,000 crore, a growth of 52% from roughly Rs 3,300 crore that it lent in FY22. Going forward, Lunia said his company’s loan book would grow to around Rs 8,000 crore by end-FY24.
“We plan to continue keep this momentum going and will invest money to grow our digital capabilities. MSME-focused cards is one segment we’re trying to enter, a B2B play, because that hasn’t happened in India yet. Once we have that under us, we’ll get access to the nature and quality of transactions which will help understand consumers better and enter newer businesses accordingly,” Lunia said.
He said Lendingkart would require at least six months to introduce its first MSME-focused card. These will most likely be rolled out in partnership with a PSU bank.
“We’re inclined to partner with a PSU because they’re clearer with their digital strategy, unlike private players, and easier to partner with. But it’s still early days so we’re keeping our options open,” Lunia added.
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Lendingkart’s recent Rs 100 crore acquisition of Upwards, a personal loan provider, will also help the company penetrate deeper with its cards division. Currently, on an average, the company’s average loan size was around Rs 6-7 lakh while Upwards caters to the smaller ticket size category of Rs 1 lakh. Upwards accounts for only 2% of Lendingkart’s revenue, but Lunia plans to push that contribution to about 10% in three years’ time.
To execute those growth plans, Lunia said his company would not immediately require funds, but would likely do about two pre-IPO rounds where the firm raises around $75-$100 million.
Lunia also said Lendingkart’s plans to go public in about 16 months from now was on track. The company has far raised over $230 million from Bertelsmann India Investments, India Quotient among others, according to Tracxn data.