MobiKwik gets go-ahead from SEBI for $84 mn IPO in second attempt

By Ajay Ramanathan

  • 23 Sep 2024
Credit: 123RF.com

One Mobikwik Systems has received the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) approval to raise Rs 700 crore ($84 million) through an initial public offering.

While the company had initially filed for a Rs 1,900 crore IPO in 2021, it subsequently refiled its papers with SEBI in January. The IPO is an entirely fresh issue with no offer for sale component.

The Gurugram-based fintech company, which is backed by Peak XV Partners and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, has not specified the valuation that it is seeking in the IPO.  But, the company managed to attain a valuation of $840 million or Rs 6,910 crore, when debt investor BlackSoil agreed to invest in the company.

The company, in consultation with the book running lead managers, may consider a further issue of specified securities including private placement, preferential allotment, rights issue or any other method aggregating to Rs 140 crore as "pre-IPO placement". If such placement is completed, the fresh issue size will be reduced.

According to the latest prospectus, Mobikwik had also issued equity shares to the tune of Rs 100 crore to Bennett, Coleman and Company, the media company behind the Times Group, in December 2021.

The company is also backed by Hindustan Times Ventures, a part of HT Media Group, which owns the parent company of VCCircle.

Established by Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku, the company caters to businesses and merchants with extensive payments and financial services such as online checkout, Kwik QR scan and pay, MobiKwik Vibe (Soundbox), MobiKwik EDC Machine, and Merchant Cash Advance.

Additionally, through its subsidiary Zaakpay, it operates a B2B payment gateway for e-commerce businesses and has received RBI approval for its Payment Aggregator (PA) business.

As of 30 September, 2023, the company has amassed 146.9 million registered users and enabled 3.81 million merchants to conduct online and offline payments.

SBI Capital Markets and DAM Capital Advisors are the book-running lead manager for the IPO, and Link Intime India is the registrar of the offer.