Open, Fi and Jupiter: India’s Neo-banking space in FY22

Neo-banking platforms Open, Fi and Jupiter bagged sizable funding rounds in the past years which helped them extend their runway besides ever increasing valuations. But revenues of even Rs 50 crore each from operations are pretty distant for all three, especially considering that two of them are still in pre-revenue stage.

Fintrackr has sifted through the annual financial statements of Open, Fi and Jupiter to decode their financial health during the fiscal year ending March 2022. We will discuss the expense breakup, funding and valuation in the later part of the story, with the first dive into revenues.

Open’s revenue from operations shot up over 7X to Rs 40.9 crore during FY22 while Fi (formerly epiFi) and Jupiter recorded Rs 21 crore and Rs 42 lakh operating revenue respectively. Significantly, both Fi and Jupiter remained in pre-revenue stage during the previous fiscal year (FY21).

Besides the operating income, the trio also earned finance income of Rs 15.42 crore, Rs 4.66 crore and Rs 18.86 crore respectively during the last financial year.

Open helps businesses manage their finances effectively and claims to have powered more than 2.5 million SMEs and processed over $30 billion in annualized transactions, as of May.

Fi provides consumer-centric financial solutions for digital natives through a mobile app and web-based solutions. It provides financial assistance and accommodation with or without security and interest for short, long and medium term by way of discounting cheques, bills or any other negotiable and transferable documents.

While Jupiter offers digital savings bank accounts with in-built money management features like real-time spend insights, tracking liquid assets across bank accounts, personalized savings goals, and sending/receiving funds via UPI.

Rising employee and promotional costs

Heading towards expenses, employee benefits expenses emerged as the largest cost element for Open and Jupiter forming 48% and 37% of the total cost and stood at Rs 107 crore and Rs 68.6 crore respectively during FY22. While Fi spent around 27% of its total expenses on employee benefits amounting to Rs 72.56 crore.

To expand its customer base, Fi spent aggressively on promotional activities, as a result its advertising & promotional expenses accounted for 59% of the total cost and stood at Rs 159.2 crore during the year. On the other hand, Open and Jupiter recorded Rs 68.8 crore and Rs 50.14 crore as advertising & promotional expenses.

Open, Fi and Jupiter reported IT & communication costs of Rs 15.6 crore, Rs 10.4 crore and Rs 20.31 crore respectively while legal & professional fees registered at Rs 9.65 crore, Rs 1.86 crore and Rs 16.94 crore during FY22.

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In total, Open’s annual expenditure surged 2.8X to Rs 224 crore, Fi’s costs exploded 5.3X to Rs 270.8 crore and Jupiter’s expenses jumped 7X to Rs 183 crore during FY22.

Bleeding bottom lines

Akin to the rising expenses, the trio got deeper into losses. Open’s losses ballooned 2.6X to Rs 167.7 crore whereas Fi and Jupiter’s losses inclined 4.9X and 11X to Rs 245.2 crore and Rs 163.9 crore respectively in FY22.

Coming to ratios, Open, Fi and Jupiter recorded an EBITDA margin of -281.90%, -951.69% and -810.57% in FY22. On a unit level, Open spent Rs 5.5 to earn a rupee of operating income whereas Fi and Jupiter spent Rs 12.9 and Rs 435.7 to earn the same during the period.

Funding and valuation

Among the three, Open is the only unicorn (at $1 billion valuation) and has raised around $187 million (~Rs 1,375 crore) to date. Fi has raised about $147 million (~Rs 1,055 crore) in total funding and was valued at around $520-550 million (~Rs 4,300 crore) after the last tranche in July 2022. Jupiter has raised $160 million (~Rs 1,225 crore) funds to date and was valued at $710 million (~Rs 4,950 crore) following its Series C round in December 2021.

OneCard, Pune-based unicorn, also lies in the neo-banking category and recorded 7.8X surge in scale to Rs 83.8 crore in FY22 while its losses also inclined 5.5X to Rs 182.7 crore during the same period.

As per Statista, transaction value in the neo-banking segment is projected to reach $68.52 billion in the ongoing calendar year and $131.8 billion by 2027 in India with an annual growth rate of 17.77% during 2023 to 2027.