Fintech company BharatPe is launching a new vertical for lending, according to sources aware of the development. The firm is separating its LSP (lending service provider) business from the main entity to a new 100% owned subsidiary.
“The brand name will be BharatPe Money which will be a complete lending division for merchants as well as consumers,” said one of the sources. The person requested anonymity. “BharatPe consumer face Postpe will be part of this new entity along with BharatPe Easy Loans.”
The firm has already incorporated a new subsidiary Resilient Digi Services Private Limited for the new vertical. The company’s regulatory filings show that Rijish Raghavan and Nalin Negi, the interim CEO of BharatPe, are the directors of the new entity.
As per BharatPe Money’s website, it offers tailor-made credit products for MSMEs and consumers, and other value-added services including credit card payments and utility bill payments.
“Kohinoor Biswas along with Rijish Raghavan will lead the new entity as directors while Nalin Negi is most likely to exit from Resilient Digi Services,” said another source. “All these activities are part of strengthening internal corporate governance in the company. So, anyone who will be part of Resilient Innovations can’t be part of the new entity,” the person added.
Biswas is one of the new CXOs who joined Bharatpe in May this year to head its consumer lending and Postpe.
As per sources, BharatPe is almost close to getting the final approval from the Reserved Bank of India (RBI) for payment aggregator and payment gateway license. With this, it will become the second company after Paytm to become offline payment aggregator as well as online payment aggregator.
Queries sent to BharatPe did not elicit an immediate response. We’ll update the post in case we hear from them.
Meanwhile, BharatPe is also getting back on track as the firm recorded its first profitable month in October. The company’s annualized revenue has crossed Rs 1,500 crore, marking over 30% growth as compared to FY23. As per the company, it also brought down its EBITDA burn from Rs 60 crore per month in the last fiscal year to EBITDA positive recently.
BharatPe attributes payment products and growth in the number and amount of transactions done on its soundbox devices for its profitability.
