Over the last few months, there has been a trend to elevate top executives to the position of co-founder. Zomato and Rebel Foods did it and now Mobikwik has followed the suit.
Digital Wallet and Payment company MobiKwik has elevated Senior Vice President Chandan Joshi to the position of co-founder. Joshi is the third person to join the original co-founding team comprising of Bipin Singh and Upasana Taku, the original co-founders of the company. Singh has been with the company for nearly two and a half years, heading the company’s payment business.
The Gurugram based company said that the elevation of Singh will officially kick start the process for IPO listing in 2022. Before its anticipated public listing, the company will look to streamline its balance sheet to seek a good response from retail investors. The company has claimed that it is already taking strong steps in this direction by managing to substantially increasing its revenue.
MobiKwik claimed that in FY20 its revenue increased by 133% on year-on-year basis to clock revenue of Rs 379 crores. It witnessed Cash EBITDA loss reduction of 91% to reach 8.5 crores on year-on-year basis. The company said “Having delivered three straight years of greater than 100% revenue growth amid stiff competition, we have demonstrated strong execution and financial discipline.”
Some of Mobikwik’s investors inculde Bajaj Finance, Sequoia Capital, Bennett Coleman & Company and American Express.
While today MobiKwik claims to be in good financial shape, its journey has been full of ups and downs. Founded in 2013, the company was once considered to be in pole position to dominate India’s payment industry. However, it was unable to leverage this advantageous position and lost much of its market share to its immediate rival Paytm. The company simply could not match up with Paytm’s financial muscle and the entry of Google Pay and PhonePe only intensified the competition further.
Its tumultuous journey has also affected its market valuation. During its funding in December 2019, the company was valued around $300-350 Mn; a far cry from the Paytm’s $16 Bn valuation.