Financial technology start-up, MobiKwik has recently announced to raise funds worth INR 52 crore in funding round led by Hindustan Media Ventures, an investment subsidiary of HT Group.
According to sources, the funding round also witnessed participation from Kris Gopalakrishnan, Infosys co-founder’s family office.
MobiKwik is a home-grown start-up that offers a digital payment platform to its customers, more specifically- a mobile-based digital wallet. Founded back in 2009, the start-up had introduced MobiKwik wallet in 2013 which was authorised by the Reserve Bank of India in the same year. The platform also provides several financial services to its customers including provisions for loans, life insurance, accident insurance, credit card bill payment, mutual funds and much more.
Reports suggest that this latest infusion of funds in MobiKwik will be utilised to grow all of its major business segments i.e. consumer payments, digital credit cards and digital payment gateway.
MobiKwik co-founder and CEO Bipin Preet Singh says,
“The HT group and Kris coming on board is very exciting for us and is an endorsement in our business model of bringing digital credit to 100 million Indians. We are on the road to IPO and look forward to their guidance on building a long-lasting sustainable company and creating impact via Financial Inclusion,” as reported by the Economic Times.
According to reports, MobiKwik has pre-approved over 15 million users using the company’s credit cards which can be availed by them for making digital payments via MobiKwik Wallet or MobiKwik Blue Amex Card.
However, analysts confirm that the credit card business in India is showing significant potential and in order to capitalise on the opportunity, MobiKwik will be utilising these newly acquired funds in growing its financial performance with respect to its credit product.
As mentioned in a regulatory filing, the mobile wallet platform has witnessed a phenomenal growth of 133% with INR 379 crore in revenues as of Financial Year 2020 that ended in March.
Digital payments and Credit business in India is growing at a rapid rate with almost cut-throat competition from other players such as Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay and Amazon Pay. Having said that, MobiKwik has shown constant profitability with two-fold revenues for three successive years and also reduced its cash burn to almost negligible.
Infosys co-founder, Kris Gopalakrishnan who has also participated in MobiKwik’s latest funding round mentioned in a statement,
“A successful new business is one which creates jobs, is sustainable, and can run for a long time. The MobiKwik team is executing with this vision and I am happy to support and encourage them.”
