Fibe’s IPO papers flag reliance on unsecured, repeat lending
Bengaluru: Mumbai-based Fibe filed for an initial public offering on Tuesday, combining a fresh issue of up to ₹750 crore with an offer for sale
Bengaluru: Mumbai-based Fibe filed for an initial public offering on Tuesday, combining a fresh issue of up to ₹750 crore with an offer for sale of more than 40 million shares by existing investors. Fibe is a digital consumer lender that uses its app and partner channels to offer mostly unsecured personal loans and other credit products to salaried, middle-income customers. The draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) noted that the company depends heavily on unsecured personal loans, repeat borrowing from existing customers, and its material subsidiary — EarlySalary Services Pvt. Ltd, which does the actual lending and carries all borrowings on the balance sheet. The DRHP also shows large default loss guarantee payouts, signalling that the business is not just a pure fee-led fintech but a lender exposed to credit cycles and funding costs. Also Read | Flipkart bets on SuperCoins to outlast India's discount wars The Pune-based company, which says it has no identifiable promoter, is backed by investors including TPG’s Rise Fund, Norwest, Eight Roads, Piramal Finance and Chiratae-linked vehicles. New customers carry higher risk Fibe says 38.53% of personal loan disbursements in FY26, 33.45% in FY25, and 29.23% in FY24 were made to new customers, and warns that this “involves exposure to higher credit risk”. New borrowers do not have an internal repayment track record, so the company is underwriting them largely on external data, income verification and model-based scoring rather than on observed behaviour with Fibe itself.
The company says any adverse development affecting such customers could lead to higher defaults, which “could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows”. Repeat lending is central Fibe also banks heavily on repeat borrowers. It said in the DRHP that it generated repeat loans from 83.92% and 90.7% of its existing eligible customers in FY25 and FY24, respectively, and warned that any reduction in such borrowing behaviour could hurt growth and revenue. The DRHP shows that 911,330 existing customers took repeat loans in FY25, compared with 109,000 customers in FY24. The amount of personal loans disbursed to existing customers rose to ₹6,187.76 crore in FY25 from ₹6,039.77 crore in FY24. Existing customers as a share of eligible borrowers were 83.92% in FY25 and 90.70% in FY24, indicating a dip in the repeat user base. The company said existing borrowers help lower acquisition costs and turnaround times because it already has their data and relationship history, making repeat lending more efficient than chasing new customers. Also Read | PayU swings to Ebitda profit in FY26 as payments, credit businesses rally “A decline in repeat rates could increase our reliance on new customer acquisition, potentially leading to higher acquisition costs, longer customer acquisition cycles and lower operating efficiency, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows,” it said. Balance sheet and asset quality On the balance sheet, Fibe’s on-book loan book stood at ₹5,241.2 crore as of 31 March 2026, versus ₹3,213.78 crore a year earlier and ₹2,287.16 crore in FY24.
The BriefWire