Walmart-owned fintech platform PhonePe has said its core losses, excluding ESOP-related costs, have narrowed because of the strong growth across all its businesses. As per its filing, its consolidated operating revenue has more than doubled (2.3X), growing by 138 per cent to Rs 1,646 crore during the year ended March 31, 2022, from Rs 690 crore in the previous year. “The increase in revenue is primarily driven by the robust growth PhonePe has seen across all its lines of businesses,” the filing stated.
The Bengaluru-based fintech’s, which competes with Paytm, Google Pay, and Amazon Pay, EBITDA or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation, without accounting for ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) costs, narrowed 15 per cent to Rs 671 crore during the year.
The company had last reported a net loss of Rs 1,727.87 crore in FY 2021, as per its latest available financial statements that it filed with the Registrar of Companies.
However, the Bengaluru-based startup’s expenses also jumped over the last year. To promote its insurance distribution business, PhonePe had floated a marketing campaign during the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2021 and IPL in 2022. This led to hike in costs, the company said.
Its employee costs also increased slightly on new hires as it added more product lines, including wealth services.
“The marketing expenses, which form a major chunk of the company’s costs, grew about 62 per cent to Rs 866 crore during the year. The increase is largely attributable to the marketing campaign for its new Insurance distribution business during the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2021, and again during IPL in 2022,” the PhonePe statement said.
The employee cost rose by 41 per cent to Rs 555 crore in FY 2022.
The fintech giant is one of the leading UPI payment platforms in the country. In 2020, it was divested from Flipkart. At present, Flipkart is still the largest shareholder in PhonePe.
