MobiKwik valued at $ 700 million after $ 20 million funding round from Abu Dhabi fund

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Abu Dhabi Investment Authority took minority stake in IPO-linked fintech company

Company plans to raise $ 200-250 million for $ 1 billion valuation with public offering in 2022

MobiKwik suffered a major data breach earlier this year, which revealed information from more than 110 million users

Gurugram-based payments and financial services startup MobiKwik has raised $ 20 million from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. ADIA took a minority stake in the fintech company, which is now valued at $ 700 million.

MobiKwik plans to make an initial public offering (IPO) by early 2022 and has been expected to prepare its draft red herring prospectus over the past two months. The latest fundraiser could be part of a larger pre-IPO cycle, as seen in the case of Delhivery, PharmEasy, PolicyBazaar.

Since MobiKwik wants to be listed on the stock exchange, it will seek to attract new investors and get a new valuation before listing. The company reportedly intends to raise $ 200-250 million for a valuation of $ 1 billion with its public offering. Pre-IPO rounds help companies reassure retail investors that their valuation is valid, especially if the startup closed its previous rounds a year or two earlier. It’s also about attracting new investors to the cap table to prove the company’s pre-IPO health.

In September 2020, the fintech startup announced that it had launched the public registration process by 2022. As part of this process, it had elevated senior vice president Chandan Joshi to the rank of co-founder of the company. “As co-founder, Chandan will join (co-founders) Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku to define internal work ethics and momentum, better organize teams for faster delivery, improve tax performance and the company in shape for the IPO in 2022, ”the company said in a statement.

The company last raised $ 5 million in April from investors such as Gaurav Dubey, Leposhe Trading Enterprises, Negen Capital Services, Deepan Kapadia, Vijay Kedia and Bharat Vinod Daftari, among others, for a valuation of $ 500 million. dollars, and an additional $ 7.2 million in March from Elizabeth. Matthew, Mauryan First, Orios Select Fund, Vineet Sharma, Gaurav Dubey among others.

The MobiKwik data breach

Mobikwik was founded in 2009 by Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku. It started its journey as a digital wallet, but has evolved into a horizontal fintech platform that offers multiple financial services, including credit, insurance and gold lending. At the end of March, MobiKwik was hit by a major data breach, which exposed personal and transactional information of 11 Cr users.

Mobikwik’s 110 million user database (11 Cr) was leaked to the dark web in January 2021. The 8.2TB database not only included personal and financial details of individual customers, but also details of traders who have taken out loans from the business.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) took note of the case and asked the Gurugram-based payment startup to have a third-party audit carried out through the CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team), the cybersecurity agency of the Indian government. In addition, the payment company was asked to submit the report to the RBI without any delay. However, it is not known if MobiKwik has completed this audit and submitted the report.

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