PayU’s Consolidated Revenue Stood At $412 Mn In H1 FY23: Prosus

Fintech major PayU saw its revenue from core payments vertical surge 23% year-on-year (YoY) to $343 Mn in the first half of the financial year 2022-23 (FY23), said parent company Prosus in its half-yearly financial report. 

However, amidst pressure on gross margins and investments in building new products, the core payments business reported a trading loss of $7 Mn during the period. 

Lending verticals namely LazyPay and Paysense saw their cumulative revenue surge 227% on a yearly basis to $49 Mn in the period under review. On similar lines, the two platforms together saw their trading losses over around the $55 Mn mark.

In total, the consolidated PayU businesses reported a revenue of $412 Mn in the first half of the current fiscal year, higher 33% compared to H1 FY22. The spurt was largely driven by payments growth in India and Turkey and the scaling of the fintech platform’s credit business in India.

Besides, the fintech player also expanded its focus on newer segments including risk-based authentication services, non-MDR (merchant discount rate) products, among others.

PayU: Prosus’ Crown Jewel

PayU continues to be one of the few profitable Indian companies in Prosus’ kitty. In FY22, the fintech major turned profitable, reporting INR 126 Cr in profits. It also saw its revenue surge to INR 2,130 Cr, up 50.6% YoY.

Even FY22 has seen the startup post storing numbers. In a recently released report, PayU said that it saw a 64% increase in expenditure and 31% growth in transaction volume during the festive sale period in 2022 versus the same period last year. 

The fintech major has also been in the news for reneging on its $4.7 Bn deal to acquire payments gateway BillDesk. After much delay and despite competition watchdog’s approval for the transaction, PayU abruptly pulled the plug on the deal calling it ‘unfulfilled M&A conditions.’

Interestingly, the growth of PayU has largely been attributed to acquisition of many of its peers including Vayana Network, Citrus Pay and many more.

Besides PayU, Prosus also has other major Indian startups under its belt including PharmEasy, Urban Company, Olx, BYJU’S, Dehaat, Meesho and others. 

The recently released half-yearly financial report of Prosus painted a positive picture of the finances of the Netherlands-based investor. Giving a peek into its Indian portfolio companies, the financial report largely mentioned the positive aspect of the businesses, and refraining from delving any deeper. 

India continued to be the Prosus’ largest payments market reporting a total payments volume of $28 Bn in H1 FY23. The country accounted for 61% of the total TPV, up from 54% in the corresponding period last year. 

“Such growth was driven by increased digitisation in retail through ecommerce, financial services and bill payments. The travel and hospitality segment also recovered to pre-pandemic levels, with its TPV close to doubling. During the period, we continued to scale our existing segments, including enterprise as well as small and medium businesses,” said Prosus in a statement. 

Amidst all the churn, Indian fintech players continue to be an attractive bet for global investors. As digital payments scale up and new products such as buy-now-pay-later see mass adoption, the fintech space appears to see a steady inflow of capital inflow and more players. 

According to Inc42, India’s total addressable fintech market opportunity is expected to soar to $1.3 Tn by 2025. Of this, lendingtech is projected to account for a major chunk of this at around 47% or $616 Bn. 

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