Indifi revenue grows 2.5X in FY19; moves towards efficient scaling

In B2B fintech lending space, several startups have been able to raise risk capital as well as scale in the past 12 months. Despite tough time in overall lending space, tech-enabled lenders such as InCred, LendingKart, CreditVidya and most recently Indifi Technologies have successfully raised fresh rounds.

While most of the above firms are yet to file their annual returns for FY19,  Alok Mittal-led Indifi has revealed its financial results for the last financial year.

The four-year-old lender has reported a revenue of Rs 27.89 crore in FY19, a 151% hike from Rs 11.08 crore in FY18. Of the total revenue, income from the sale of services contributed the most as revenue from operations stood at Rs 24.19 crore.

In terms of losses, Indifi did not surprise with a big loss in the last fiscal, but it registered an increase of 39% in losses to Rs 21.44 crore in FY19.

During the period, the overall expenses also increased by a large margin from Rs 26.36 crore in FY18 to Rs 49.3 crore in FY19. Employee benefits expense was accounted for the most significant expenditure factor at Rs 25.91 crore.

Moreover, the company’s overall salary expenses grossed more than Rs 22 crore.Of late, Indifi has made some key hirings such as appointment former Freecharge CEO Sangram Singh as its President.

Besides, losses, expense and revenue, the bad debt component has emerged as the crucial component for Indifi. According to the company’s annual returns, the firm had to write off Rs 3.73 crore as bad debt from its loan book in FY19.

Notably, the company only lost about Rs 38 Lakhs in bad debts in FY18 which increased multifold this year as the company seems to have handed out loans liberally this year.  

The aforementioned financial disclosure comes on the heels of $21 million Series C round raised by the Indifi in July, this year. The company's total assets rose also around 57% to Rs 164.38 crore as it is focussing on expansion and the development of infrastructure for future growth.

With the increased scale, repayment of debts, the expenses and losses are expected to increase as well.

For the unaware, Indifi provides lending services, acting as a marketplace for B2B loan providers and seekers. Through its lending partners which include Edelweiss and IDFC, it offers services such as term loan, line of credit, invoice discounting, and merchant cash advancing services specially customized for companies in several categories.

Apart from lending and operating a marketplace, Indifi evaluates risk factors and checks the volatility of the market before allocation of a loan to businesses and enterprise it works with such as Swiggy, Zomato, OYO, MakeMyTrip, Flipkart, FirstData.

It will be interesting to watch how the company deals with its business partners to grow, scale and control losses and expenses in the coming fiscal