Financial-technology company MobiKwik, operated by One MobiKwik System Pvt. Ltd, said Friday it has secured Rs 52 crore (approximately $7.04 million at current exchange rates) in a fresh funding round.
The round in the Gurugram-based MobiKwik has been led by Hindustan Media Ventures Ltd, the investment arm of HT Group. Pratithi, the family office of Infosys Ltd co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, also participated in this round.
The announcement comes after reports last month said that MobiKwik had raised Rs 41.5 crore (around $5.6 million) from Hindustan Media Ventures in its Series E funding round.
In a statement, the online payments company said it will use this fresh capital for growing key business segments including digital credit and cards, consumer payments, and payment gateways.
“MobiKwik has carved out a unique spot for itself with its digital credit card model within India’s fintech ecosystem. The company has demonstrated good financial performance by scaling revenue while becoming breakeven profitable,” HT Group CFO and CEO for strategic investments Piyush Gupta said.
MobiKwik co-founder and CEO Bipin Preet Singh said the investment by HT and Gopalakrishnan was an endorsement of its business model and objective of bringing digital credit products to 100 million Indians.
MobiKwik was set up in August 2009 by Singh and Upasana Taku. In September this year, the company also elevated senior vice-president Chandan Joshi to co-founder status and CEO of its payments business.
The company operates in segments such as consumer payments, payment gateways and financial services including mutual funds. The consumer payments segment accounts for nearly two-thirds of its revenue.
MobiKwik’s net revenue jumped 134% to Rs 379 crore for 2019-20 from Rs 162 crore the year before, its latest annual report shows. Its earnings loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation narrowed to Rs 45 crore from Rs 112 crore.
In its annual report, the company said it has also begun preparing for an initial public offering, which it is aiming to conduct in 2022.
Mumbai-listed Hindustan Media Ventures is 74.4% owned by HT Media Ltd, the operator of newspaper brands such as Hindustan Times. In July, HT Media said it would acquire Mosaic Media Ventures Pvt. Ltd, the operator of VCCircle.com, from News Corp. The deal was completed earlier this week.
