MobiKwik, an IPO bound fintech has entered into the $1Bn unicorn club after a few of its employees exercised employee stock option plans. Blackstone India head Mathew Cyriac led the secondary round.

As compared to his first investment earlier this year, Cyriac has invested almost twice in the current round.

By November first week, MobiKwik is planning to go for an initial public offering (IPO) at a valuation of $1.5 Bn-$1.7Bn. It had filed its draft red herring prospectus for INR 1,900 Cr IPO.

Founded by Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku, in 2009, MobiKwik has raised over $165 Mn in primary rounds. Taku and Singh collectively own a 35 per cent stake in the startup.

MobiKwik is a fintech platform that offers multiple financial services including insurance, credit and gold loans.

In FY21, MobiKwik’s revenue from fell to INR 288.5 Cr from INR 355.6 Cr in FY20. It is 2 times higher than INR 148.4 Cr reported in FY19. Total income fell from INR 369 Cr to INR 302 Cr.

MobiKwik raised $20 Mn from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. It also added investors like Padma awardee Sat Pal Khattar, Cyriac and ex-Infosys CIO V G Dheeshjith as new shareholders including Bajaj Finance and Sequoia Capital.

The company claims that a critical element of its business is the ability to mitigate risk associated with buy now pay later (BNPL) operations, including appropriate underwriting, identification of suitable users and development of a visible and efficient collection strategy.