PayU consolidated revenue reaches $1.1B in FY24; India leads growth

Prosus-owned PayU saw its consolidated revenue increase by 22% year-on-year to $1.1 billion in FY24, including contributions from its acquisitions such as LazyPay, PaySense, and Wimbo, according to a report by the Netherlands-based investor.

Excluding these acquisitions, PayU grew by 38% at the group level, primarily driven by its operations in India and Turkey as well as India credit services.

India, PayU’s largest market in the Payment Service Provider (PSP) segment, contributed 46% to its core PSP revenue and 60% of total payment volume, growing its revenue by 11% YoY to $444 million, despite a merchant onboarding pause.

"PayU’s core PSP and credit businesses delivered strong revenue and increased scale. Notably, this was achieved despite pending regulatory approvals in the Indian PSP business and new regulation impacting our Indian credit business," the company said in its annual report.

In April this year, PayU received in-principle authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a payments aggregator (PA), allowing it to onboard new merchants on its platform after a 15-month embargo.

However, the trading profit margin for PayU’s Indian payments business slipped to -3% in FY24, from 3% in FY23, due to changes in the merchant and payment method mix, predominantly driven by the embargo.

The India credit segment offers buy-now-pay-later and personal loans to Indian consumers. It expanded its revenue by 29% to $107 million in the year ended March 31, 2024, despite regulatory adjustments. Additionally, the segment initiated a pilot programme this year to diversify its portfolio by providing loans to small and medium businesses, the report said.

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Despite this growth, trading losses increased to $20 million due to ongoing investments in building the merchant lending portfolio. India credit issued $873 million in loans and grew its loan book to $468 million in FY24.

In February, PayU announced a partnership with the National Payments Corporation of India to enable PayU merchants to accept digital payments through credit lines.

"In FY24, PayU India strengthened the board by appointing independent directors. The new PayU payments board will comprise 10 directors: five independent directors, three non-independent non-executive directors and two executive directors. The independent directors come with vast experience in the fields of business, finance, regulatory, technology, people and will help PayU scale into its next phase of growth," the report said.

PayU Payments Pvt Ltd has appointed former HDFC Managing Director Renu Sud Karnad, along with Laurent Le Moal, former global CEO of PayU, and other industry experts to its board of directors.