Prosus-owned PayU has reported a significant increase in its consolidated revenue, reaching $1.1 billion for the fiscal year 2024 (FY24), marking a 22% year-on-year growth. The company credited this growth to its recent acquisitions, including LazyPay, PaySense, and Wimbo, as detailed in a report by the Netherlands-based investor.
Excluding the contributions from these acquisitions, PayU’s revenue grew by 38% at the group level. This impressive growth was primarily driven by its operations in India and Turkey, as well as its Indian credit services.
India, which is PayU’s largest market in the Payment Service Provider (PSP) segment, played a crucial role in this growth. The country contributed 46% to PayU’s core PSP revenue and accounted for 60% of the total payment volume. Despite a temporary halt in merchant onboarding, India saw an 11% year-on-year increase in revenue, reaching $444 million.
“PayU’s core PSP and credit businesses delivered strong revenue and increased scale. Notably, this was achieved despite pending regulatory approvals in the Indian PSP business and new regulation impacting our Indian credit business,” the company stated in its annual report.
Earlier this year, in April, PayU received in-principle authorization from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a payments aggregator (PA). This authorization allowed PayU to onboard new merchants on its platform after a 15-month embargo.
However, the trading profit margin for PayU’s Indian payments business declined to -3% in FY24, down from 3% in FY23. This decrease was attributed to changes in the merchant and payment method mix, primarily driven by the embargo.
The India credit segment, which offers buy-now-pay-later and personal loans to Indian consumers, also showed significant growth. Its revenue expanded by 29%, reaching $107 million in the year ended March 31, 2024, despite facing regulatory adjustments. Additionally, the segment launched a pilot program this year to diversify its portfolio by providing loans to small and medium businesses.
Despite the growth in the India credit segment, trading losses increased to $20 million due to ongoing investments in building the merchant lending portfolio. The segment issued $873 million in loans and expanded its loan book to $468 million in FY24.
In February, PayU announced a partnership with the National Payments Corporation of India to enable PayU merchants to accept digital payments through credit lines.
“In FY24, PayU India strengthened the board by appointing independent directors. The new PayU payments board will comprise 10 directors: five independent directors, three non-independent non-executive directors, and two executive directors. The independent directors come with vast experience in the fields of business, finance, regulatory, technology, people and will help PayU scale into its next phase of growth,” the report highlighted.
PayU Payments Pvt Ltd has also appointed notable figures to its board, including former HDFC Managing Director Renu Sud Karnad, along with Laurent Le Moal, the former global CEO of PayU, and other industry experts.