Payments platform BharatPe has seen a surge in business following the restrictions imposed by competitor Paytm and its payments bank arm on January 31, 2024.

In February 2024, BharatPe’s merchant on-boarding surged by 77 per cent on month and platform’s website traffic for onboarding inquries increased by more than 47 per cent, the company told businessline.

Of this increase, onboarding from Tier-I cities increased by 76 per cent followed by 63 per cent growth in Tier-II cities. Growth in Tier-III and beyond cities was at over 83 per cent leading to the total merchant base crossing 1.3 crore as of February 29.

The maximum traction was seen in the first 15 days post the restrictions imposed on Paytm.

Over 42 per cent Kirana stores were reported to have switched to other platforms such as Mobikwik, BharatPe, PhonePe and GooglePay due to uncertain and cautious merchants shifting from Paytm to ensure seamless continuation of their UPI payments. Previously, Paytm had around 69 per cent market share among Kirana stores.

In the first half of February, BharatPe’s merchant sign-ups increased by 100 per cent on month, recording a growth of 104 per cent in metro cities and 95 per cent in Tier-2 and 3 cities. This was also aided by additional features and offers rolled out by BharatPe such as free QR code set up, flat earnings of up to ₹300 and instant settlements.

BharatPe’s loss narrowed to ₹886 crore in FY23 from ₹5,594 crore in FY22. The EBITDA loss also declined by ₹158 crore in FY23, the fintech had then said. Its merchant lending business had grown 129 per cent to ₹5,339 crore and total loan disbursements to about ₹12,400 crore till date.

Since its inception, BharatPe has raised over $583 million in equity from investors such as Peak XV Partners, Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, Amplo, Beenext, Coatue Management, Dragoneer Investment Group, Steadfast Capital, Steadview Capital and Tiger Global.

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