BankBazaar Revenue Bounces Back to Pre-COVID Levels

CHENNAI:
BankBazaar.com, India’s leading free credit score provider and online financial product marketplace, announced that month-on-month revenues are getting back on track, and are trending at 70% of the peak pre-COVID monthly revenue. The company is now looking to close this financial year with operational month-on-month profitability. Even prior to the pandemic, BankBazaar revenues had been on an upward streak, brought on by a 54% monthly revenue growth and a 15% cost reduction between October 2019 and February 2020. The company was looking at operational month-on-month profitability in March 2020 when COVID-19 hit.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown resulted in massive business continuity issues in the financial sector. In this situation, Digital KYC has contributed significantly to ensuring credit products’ availability, especially credit cards and personal loans, during the lockdown. According to BankBazaar, even post lockdown, the demand for digital alternatives is on the rise, and the business saw over 100% sequential revenue growth between Q1 FY21 and Q2 FY21. The company attributes this growth to being the first mover in implementing contactless technologies supporting Digital KYC.

Says Adhil Shetty, CEO & Co-founder, BankBazaar, “One tough lesson that the COVID pandemic brought home is the need to ensure business continuity at all times. Our growth has been entirely fueled by our technology as we looked to cut costs without impacting our reach. On one hand, we employed AI and ML predictive matching so that we could connect customers with the right financial product. On the other hand, we had the first-mover advantage when it came to facilitating Digital KYC solutions. Our technology provided our customers a secure, safe, consent-based, and contactless access to credit, gave our partners significant time and cost advantages, and ensured that we have been indispensable to our ecosystem at a time when the need for contactless access to credit is paramount.”

The company foresees technology to be a massive disruptor driving growth during and post this COVID crisis, as both lenders and customers will demand the convenience, speed, and safety offered by technology-based contactless solutions.

Says Shetty, “Despite the adverse impacts of the pandemic, we looked at it as an opportunity to push the envelope on how technology can provide solutions to pressing and unexpected problems in a timely manner. We challenged ourselves to come up with the right solutions just when it was needed, and this has paid out for us. We are bouncing back fast and looking to hit EBITDA month-on-month positivity in this financial year itself before March 2021.”

BankBazaar.com is India’s first neutral online marketplace that gives instant customized offers on loans and credit cards. It also provides customers free consumer credit score on its portal. Over 50+ of India’s leading financial institutions have chosen to integrate themselves with the platform. Including this recent round, BankBazaar has so far raised USD 116M in funding from investors such as Experian, Eight Roads, Sequoia India, Walden International, WSV, and Amazon.