Perfios, a SaaS-based B2B fintech firm has set the bar pretty high with tremendous growth in the fiscal year ending March 2024 where the revenue has recorded a staggering 37.1 per cent year-over-year increase crossing ₹550 crore mark. The profits have risen over nine times for this period, indicating how well-performing this company is in terms of its market position along with efficient functioning.
According to the consolidated financial statements of Perfios reported with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), the revenue from operations was at ₹557.8 crore in FY24 compared with ₹407 crore for FY23. Perfios is a specialist financial services company that provides critical revenue analysis, fraud detection, verification, and automated customer onboarding to financial institutions operating across various verticals like consumer lending, SME lending, and wealth management. The company operates in 18 countries, although it does claim to have empowered over 1,200 institutions with its suite of offerings.
Services income stood at ₹472.2 crore in FY24, up 29.3%. This included earnings from software coding and maintenance, which doubled to ₹82 crore, as spiking grew 100%. The company earned ₹3.57 crore on subscription fees. Gains made from investments and deposits in bank accounts added another ₹11 crore. Total revenues stood at nearly ₹569.47 crore.
While revenues were booming, expenses at Perfios had been going up. The biggest of these was employee benefits, which rose 36.4% to ₹291.16 crore. Other legal, professional, and technology costs rose to ₹161 crore from ₹128.8 crore in FY23. Depreciation and amortization costs rose 13.1% to ₹36.3 crore. The total cost for the company in FY24 went up 28.3% to ₹495.5 crore compared with ₹386.4 crore the previous fiscal year.
Perfios’ profit after tax rose at a year-on-year growth of 9.2 times. Its profit after tax stood at ₹ 71.67 crore in FY24 compared to ₹ 7.79 crore in FY23. The company also witnessed a standalone profit of ₹ 57.19 cr during the year. Of late, its return on capital employed and EBITDA margins improved to 7.07% and 20.58%. It spent ₹ 0.89 to earn a rupee at the unit level in FY24.
It had cash and cash equivalents of ₹255.28 crore at the end of FY24, with a balance in the bank of ₹119 crore and receivables of ₹143.33 crore. The company so far has raised over ₹3,644.45 crore from various rounds of fund-raising. The most recent one includes the $80 million (approximately ₹662 crore) placed by Kedaara Capital in March 2024, which reportedly more than doubled the valuation to over $1 billion. The funding round has positioned Perfios as the second unicorn of 2024 in India.
Apart from the funding round, Perfios also reportedly acquired fintech start-up Karza Technologies in an all-cash deal worth ₹600 crore in March 2022. The acquisition points to the company’s strategy to enhance its technological capabilities and expand the market reach.
Perfios boasts a fair number of accomplishments despite reaching this stage not having been an easy ride. Founders have been in the industry since the 1980s, and the big questions come on what drives their passion and energy to continue to lead and motivate employees to help Perfios thrive in what is increasingly getting competitive in fintech. Many founders in India tend to exit after achieving major milestones, so an interesting future trajectory unfolds for Perfios.
In conclusion, this capitalizes on the very successful growth and profitability Perfios has displayed as it seeks to further penetrate the fintech sector. As the company faces opportunities and challenges through its future development, it stands in an elite position to sustain its current momentum and, perhaps later on, expand through acquisitions to cement its leadership in the market.
