Exclusive: MobiKwik secures debt from Blacksoil amid IPO delay

IPO-bound digital payment solutions provider MobiKwik has raised debt of Rs 35 crore from Blacksoil Capital. The Gurugram-based firm raised the debt fund after more than 12 months of filing its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with SEBI.

The board at Mobikwik has passed a resolution to allot 700 non-convertible debentures (NCD) at an issue price of Rs 5,00,000 each to raise Rs 35 crore, according to a regulatory filing filed with the registrar of companies (ROC).

This comes at a time when MobiKwik is reportedly looking to raise $100 million as the company delayed its IPO due to tough market conditions. Before this, the company had raised $20 million from the sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority in June 2021. Entrackr was the first to report the development.

While MobiKwik’s last primary valuation stood at around $736 million when it raised the above round, the company’s valuation touched $1 billion in a secondary round (ESOP sale).

Mobikwik had filed DRHP to raise Rs 1,900 crore through IPO. However, the debacle of Paytm IPO and the poor performance of Zomato and others, forced several startups, especially fintechs, to wait for the right time to hit bourses.

RBI had rejected applications of 100 fintech firms which did not comply with the eligibility criteria of payment aggregators and payment gateways. MobiKwik is also one of them. The apex banking body rejected the payment license for Mobikwik’s flagship product Zaakpay as it fell short of net worth requirements, and as it was providing its gateway service for facilitating crypto transactions. Entrackr was first to report this in April.

Mobikwik is yet to file its financial statements for FY22 but the company’s operating revenue dropped 19.6% to Rs 288.6 crore in FY21. MobiKwik also posted a loss of Rs 111 crore during the period. The firm generates revenue primarily from three segments: consumer payments business, payment gateway and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL).