Kissht Eyes $225 Mn IPO, To File Draft Papers By June: Report

SUMMARY

Kissht has picked ICICI Securities, UBS Securities, and Motilal Oswal as the investment bankers for the proposed public issue

The Mumbai-based startup is looking to file draft papers for the IPO by June this year. It is eyeing a valuation of $900 Mn to $1.1 Bn for the IPO

Founded in 2015 by Ranvir Singh and Krishnan Vishwanathan, Kissht is a digital lending platform which claims to offer quick and easy access to credit at “lowest interest rates”

Digital lending startup Kissht is reportedly gearing up for an initial public offering of $225 Mn (around INR 1,926 Cr).

A Mint report, citing sources, said that the fintech startup has picked ICICI Securities, UBS Securities, and Motilal Oswal as the investment bankers for the proposed public issue. Besides, the startup is looking to onboard one more investment banker.

Kissht declined to comment on Inc42’s queries on the development.

As per the report, the Mumbai-based startup is looking to file draft papers for the IPO by June this year. It is eyeing a valuation of $900 Mn to $1.1 Bn for the IPO.

“The IPO will be a mix of primary and secondary share sales, with 75% expected to be primary capital raised to fund growth and new business lines,” a source was quoted as saying.

The startup last raised about $80 Mn in 2022, at a valuation of about $344 Mn, from Vertex Growth and Brunei Investment Agency.

Kissht’s Fintech Offerings

Founded in 2015 by Ranvir Singh and Krishnan Vishwanathan, Kissht is a digital lending platform which claims to offer quick and easy access to credit at “lowest interest rates”.

It offers personal and business loans of up to INR 5 Lakh with minimal documentation digitally. Kissht also offers health-related insurance products. It claims to use big data and AI-ML algorithms to assess creditworthiness.

The startup claims to have disbursed more than 1 Cr loans so far and served 4.5 Mn customers to date.

Recently, it expanded its offerings by entering the loans against property segment. Speaking about the new offering, Singh told Inc42 then, “Over the last few months, we have been doing a pilot, trying to understand the risk better, understand the offering to better lay out the secured lending process.”

“I don’t know any player who can offer loans against property in a digital manner. In India, the collateralisation requires manual intervention… We’re making it digital through and through,” he added.

Kissht has raised a total funding of $142.54 Mn to date and counts Endiya Partners, Brunei Investment Authority, among others, as its investors. It competes with the likes of Moneyview, Lendingkart, Capital Float, FlexiLoans, and KredX.

The Startup IPO Rush

The IPO plans come at a time when a large number of Indian startups are looking to go public. While Indian investors seem to be positive about new-age tech IPOs, making the country one of the most favoured markets for such companies, profitability is among the key factors that investors are looking at.

On this front, Kissht seems to be in a good position. Its net profit zoomed 234% to INR 82.46 Cr in FY24 from INR 24.67 Cr in FY23. Operating revenue almost doubled to INR 412 Cr from INR 258 Cr in FY23.

With the latest development, Kissht has joined the long list of startups which are eyeing a public listing this year. While 13 new-age tech companies made their public market debut last year, more than 20 such companies, including Physics Wallah, Meesho, IndiQube, among others, are in the queue to get listed this year.