Ratan Tata and Tiger Global-backed Upstox, a digital investment and trading platform, expects to be “significantly more profitable” this fiscal, riding on buoyant stock markets and an increased customer base of new-to-equity market investors, Ravi Kumar, Co-Founder and CEO, has said.
- Also read:Digital broker Upstox hopeful of achieving ‘profitable growth’ in 2023-24, breaks even in 2022-23
It had closed last fiscal with an EBITDA of ₹200 crore and consolidated net profit of ₹25 crore. Broking revenue in 2022-23 was up 44 per cent to over ₹1,000 crore. In the last two quarters this fiscal, Upstox has generated over ₹ 200 crore in cash, Kumar noted, adding that the firm was now a very profitable business.
Public listing
Going forward, Upstox aspires to go in for a public listing and launch an initial public offering (IPO) in the next 2-3 years, he said when asked about plans for a public float of shares. Upstox currently has more than 1.3 crore customers on its platform. “There are plans to go public at some point in the future. We are getting ready and aspire to do it. But no banker has yet been appointed and we have no date in mind”, Kumar said.
“Nothing would make us more proud than becoming a public listed company at some point. Reason why we exist is because of public markets and going public will bring higher level of corporate governance and transparency to the business. We will do it when the time is right”, Kumar said.
He said that Upstox had no immediate plans for fundraising as the company was generating good levels of cash now. “We are not looking to raise capital for now”, Kumar added.
Kumar said that Upstox is already in the process of hiring 250 new employees including engineers, managers etc. As of date, the company has an employee count of 600 people.
In 2024, Upstox will aim for more diversification in revenue by launching new products and monetisation from the new product launches, he added. “Going forward, our strategy will be to focus on quality service, more than quantity. We have built scale, and are now shifting gears with a greater than ever attention on product innovation and exhaustive investor education initiatives”, Kumar said.
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