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LiquiLoans revenue surges 3.4X to Rs 696 Cr in FY24, remains profitable

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LiquiLoans revenue surges 3.4X to Rs 696 Cr in FY24, remains profitable While the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) tightens regulations around the peer-to-peer (P2P) lending space, with the impact expected to be seen in FY25 and FY26, the sector’s poster child, LiquiLoans, has experienced 3.4x growth in the fiscal year ending March 2024. LiquiLoans’ revenue from operations jumped to Rs 695.63 crore in the last fiscal year (FY24) from Rs 203.43 crore in FY23, its financial statements sourced from the Registrar of Companies (RoC) show. LiquiLoans operates as a peer-to-peer lending platform, providing personal loans, consumer loans, and deposit financing. The platform emphasizes high diversification, capping portfolio exposure per borrower at 0.5%. During the last fiscal year, the sale of these services was the company’s sole source of revenue. LiquiLoans made additional Rs 10 crore from interest income which pushed its total income to Rs 706 crore in FY24. On the expense front, service fee expenses accounted for the largest share, surging 4X to Rs 578.57 crore in FY24, compared to Rs 140 crore in FY23. Commission payouts increased by 88% to Rs 64.72 crore, while employee benefit expenses rose 2.5X to Rs 40.80 crore. Overall, LiquiLoans' total expenses jumped 3.3X, reaching Rs 704.59 crore in FY24, up from Rs 212.94 crore in FY23. The steep rise in expenses led to an 88% drop in profits for LiquiLoans, declining to Rs 71 lakh in FY24 from Rs 5.70 crore in FY23. The company's ROCE and EBITDA margin stood at 1.11% and 0.35%, respectively. On a unit basis, LiquiLoans spent Rs 1.01 to generate every rupee of operating revenue in the last fiscal year. The Mumbai-based company reported cash and bank balances of Rs 33 lakh and current assets worth Rs 283 crore in FY24. According to TheKredible, Liquiloans has raised $15 million to date, with Matrix Partners and CRED serving as its lead investors. LiquiLoans has built a strong reputation in the business, and market feedback indicates some of the lowest non-performing loans in its portfolio as well. As the backend for some leading players in the business, the firm has also focused on the higher credit score side of the market, further reducing risk. What that has also meant is that margins can be narrower if returns are safer. Thus, margin expansion will need to look at the cost side harder. With the regulator keen to weed out short-term players, LiquiLoans seems well placed for a strong run in the vanilla personal loans business, besides future opportunities with other products as it builds its own database of high-quality borrowers.