'Profit growth to guide IPO plans'

Fintech platform Mobikwik is looking to renew plans for an initial public offering (IPO) backed by consistent profitability and inorganic growth at a time when the financial health of startups are under the scanner from wary investors.

- Malvika Maloo & Beena Parmar

Co-founded by wife-husband duo Upasana Taku (COO) and Bipin Preet Singh (CEO), Gurugram-based Mobikwik began as a digital wallet in 2009, eventually expanding its offerings to serve the broader payments and financial services market.

The company, backed by Sequoia Capital and sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority among others, had shelved its IPO plans last year due to volatile markets. In an interview, Taku said Mobikwik is now focused on further growing its payments, credit and investment verticals. Edited excerpts:

How does the roadmap look like going forward?

We have created a very large platform on the user and the merchant side. That's our bread and butter. On top of it, we were also looking at ow we can have not just looked at monetization but a stronger sticky value proposition. That's when we had started building credit products in 2018. We were growing in 2019-20 when covid happened, which put some breaks. But our recovery coming out of covid was very strong. We did well in FY22, showed some profitable quarters and now, in FY23 too, we have shown in the last quarter, Ebitda profitability. Our intention is to continue this every quarter.