Fibe CFO focuses on growth but keeps hawkish eye on asset quality

Ashish Goyal, Co-founder CFO at Pune-based digital lender Fibe, which primarily focuses on disbursing personal loans to customers earning a salary between Rs 20,000 and Rs 50,000 a month, said his top priority will be driving growth while also maintaining asset quality at the firm.

We are seeing strong growth momentum this financial year. In the last quarter (July-September), we grew about 60% on disbursements. Building growth will be our top priority but we would ensure the asset quality remains stable. The company will continue to keep a hawkish eye on it.Fibe Cofounder CFO Ashish Goyal

The finance veteran did not share growth or profitability projections for the year but said he expects strong momentum in both.

Last financial year, Fibe saw 100% growth in its disbursements and grew 3X in profitability. The firm has to date crossed disbursements of over Rs 17,000 crore. Its profit was in the upwards of Rs 30 crore during the last fiscal.

Growth Drivers

The Co-founder CFO is betting big on deepening the company’s existing lines including its latest foray into health, insurance, and education financing products and the core personal loans segment, and at the same time exploring new product lines for the future.

“Last year, we launched lines of products which are insurance, healthcare and education financing. We are working with many hospitals and clinics to provide healthcare financing, this area is a very underpenetrated area and we come into play here to provide affordability to customers. Similarly, for education and insurance products, we are partnering with upgradation companies and insurance firms, and again the basic play here is affordability,” Goyal said.

Fibe has also partnered with Axis in October to launch a numberless credit card, the CFO said.

Funding

The CFO said the company would continue to diversify its funding sources and may raise more money to meet regulatory requirements, as well as to provide equity cushion to lenders for more borrowing money.

Last month, Fibe’s NBFC entity EarlySalary Services Pvt Ltd raised Rs 30 crore via the issuance of Non-Convertible Debentures (NCD).

In October 2022, Fibe closed its series D round funding of $110 million led by TPG's The Rise Fund and Norwest Venture Partners. In previous rounds, the firm had raised $34 million total money in equity funding.

The CFO said most of the money total raised has been deployed in the business itself.

“We received a BBB+/Stable rating from CARE Ratings Limited on the NCDs, and this is a validation of the strong balance sheet we have,” Goyal concluded.

Fibe was founded in 2015. It aims to build a financial ecosystem that enables the mid-income group to fulfill their aspirations. It has launched financial products like cash loans, long-term personal loans, and Buy Now Pay Later plans.