True Balance

SoftBank-backed True Balance sees a 10X jump in revenue to Rs 6 Cr; losses reach Rs 33.12 Cr

True Balance

Cheolwon (Charlie) Lee founded True Balance in September 2014 as a mobile balance tracking application which now also provided wallet services.

The Gurugram and Korea based company in its latest filings with Registrar of Companies has reported a revenue of Rs 5.97 crore in FY18, a 10.4X jump from Rs 57.73 lakhs in FY17. The losses have increased by only 3.21 per cent, going up from Rs 32.09 crore to Rs 33.12 crore in the latest fiscal reported.

The expenses of the company have soared by 19.83 per cent, going up to Rs 39.15 crore from Rs 32.67 crore in FY17.

The major expenditure made by the company is in marketing and advertising, occupying 78.85 per cent (Rs 30.87 crore) of total expenses in FY18 and 92.77 per cent (Rs 30.31 crore) in FY17.

It is astonishing how even with this much burn in the advertisement, the company has not started monetising in almost 4 years and relies on miscellaneous operating incomes like royalties, foreign exchange, readjustment in the provision, cultural events etc to generate operating revenue.

In the fiscal year 2017-18, the company went through a major pivot in December, where it started providing the wallet services via its mobile application, by when it had over 50 million app downloads on Google Play.

In April this year, Softbank led a $23 million bridge round in the company along with its other Japanese and Korean investors including Line Ventures Corporation, Shinhan Bank, and TS Investment.

Throughout 2018, True Balance has taken several steps to enhance its both balance tracking and wallet services. It started providing balance management services to postpaid users in April, and partnered with Bharat Bill Payment Operating Unit in June to provide the facility of one tap bill payment to users in not just mobiles, but also DTH, gas, and electricity.

While the company is working towards its goal of 100 million users, revenue generation still remains an area of concern for the company. It remains to be seen how long it takes the balance tracking-plus-wallet app to reach there.

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