In FY21, BharatPe’s revenue increased by a factor of 20 and reached Rs 120 crore
- ByStartupStory | April 9, 2022
Because of concerns with corporate governance, alleged fraud, and an internal battle between the promoters and backers, BharatPe has been in turmoil. While the impact of these issues on BharatPe’s business will be known when the company files its financial results for FY22, FY21, when none of these issues had surfaced, has turned out to be the fintech unicorn’s first year of meaningful revenues after generating revenue of Rs 6 crore in FY19 and FY20 combined.
The Delhi-based firm’s revenue from operations increased by nearly 20 times to Rs 119.1 crore in FY21, thanks to increased collections from its business loans segment, according to its annual financial records filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC). The Tiger Global-backed startup primarily serves as an aggregator for various retailers and business customers, providing them with a common QR code for accepting push payments through third-party UPI applications.
During FY21, advertising expenses climbed by only 4% to Rs 45 crore, but outsourced service expenses surged by 10.2% YoY to Rs 81.87 crore. The EBITDA margin increased to -141.01 percent in FY21 from -915.51 percent in FY20, thanks to the company’s first year of considerable collections. BharatPe’s yearly losses increased by 34.1 percent to Rs 277.2 crore in FY21 from Rs 206.81 crore in FY20, thanks to a four-fold increase in finance income.
While onboarding may have slowed, BharatPe aggressively expanded its employee size, particularly in technology, during the previous fiscal year, arguably more than anyone else in publicizing the difficulty of obtaining tech talent. This was accomplished by adopting unique talent acquisition techniques such as providing new hires with high-end BMW bikes, electronics, and an international trip. As a result, employee benefits payments increased by over 170 percent from Rs 27.95 crore in FY20 to Rs 75.41 crore in FY21. Importantly, employee stock options were used to repay roughly 29.3 percent of these payments.
BharatPe showed great growth momentum in FY21, as its scale rose 20X while keeping expenses under tight control, but the main question now is whether BharatPe will be able to repeat this level of growth in FY22. While this will not be known until BharatPe publishes its FY22 numbers, the business’s CEO, Suhail Sameer, has stated that despite the distractions of internal feuds, the company will generate Rs 700 crore in revenue in the current fiscal year (FY22).
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