BharatPe eyes to be EBIDTA positive by 2023, appoints Nalin Negi as CFO

Fintech unicorn BharatPe on Wednesday said that it has appointed Nalin Negi as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO). In his new role, Negi will be spearheading the finance function for BharatPe and will be working towards making the company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or EBITDA positive by March 2023, the company said in a statement.

Furthermore, Negi will also be leading financial readiness for the company as it prepares for the initial-public offering (IPO) in next 18-24 months. As a part of the job, he will be reporting to Suhail Sameer, CEO, BharatPe and will be working closely with the Board of BharatPe.

Elaborating on his role, the company also stated, "In line with his extensive experience in banking and cards industry, Negi will be working closely with the Senior Management team at BharatPe and help catapult growth across business lines." This is the second leadership announcement for BharatPe this year. In April 2022, the company had announced the appointment of Smriti Handa as the Chief Human Resources Officer.

As a banking professional, Negi has over over 25 years of experience in baking and other financial services across renowned brands like GE Capital and SBI Card. In his last stint, Nalin was the CFO of SBI Card for over 10 years where he spearheaded a number of key strategic initiatives for the company including leading SBI Card’s IPO in March 2020, thereby, making it the first pure-play credit card company to list on the stock exchanges in India, BharatPe noted.

Previously, he was associated with American Express (India) Private Limited, EXL Service (India) Private Limited, Nestle India Limited, and ITC Limited.

Speaking on the appointment of Nalin, Suhail Sameer, CEO, BharatPe said, “As we focus on the next stage of growth and on building a sustainable and profitable business across both our business lines- merchant and consumer, I am confident that Nalin’s experience will be a huge asset for a new-age fintech company like ours... Also, Nalin’s experience of listing SBI Card will be instrumental for us as we aim to go public in FY25.”

On his appointment, Nalin Negi, said, “BharatPe’s growth story has been phenomenal. The company has become a preferred and trusted partner for millions of offline merchants in just 4 years of launch. It has been the flagbearer for digital payments in India and has also been at the forefront of solving the credit gap for SMEs and offline retailers in the country, having closed Q1 of FY23 with over INR 3600 Cr in total loans facilitated in the first quarter of FY23 and US$ 18 bn+ in annualized TPV in payments. The next couple of years are exciting as the company aims to hit profitability and go public, and build India’s first truly Digital Bank."

Notably, the appointment of new CFO comes a day after Bhavik Koladiya, one of the founders of BharatPe, who was working with the company as a consultant overseeing the technology and product functions, stepped down from the post.

“Bhavik Koladiya has been associated with BharatPe as an Independent Consultant, guiding our Product and Technology teams. His contract tenure ended on July 31, 2022 and he expressed his desire to spend time on other assignments outside BharatPe,” the company said in a statement.