PB Fintech, which runs Policybazaar India And Paisabazaar,
made its debut on the exchanges on MondayIt has become the third high-profile consumer internet startup to be listed in India after Zomato and Nykaa.

The online insurance market closed the day trading with a market cap of Rs 54,070 crore as the stock ended at Rs 1,202.90 on BSE, nearly 23% higher than the issue price.

Yashish Dahiya, co-founder and chairman of PB Fintech, said that he was very impressed by it. listing The gains, which however looked moderate in comparison to the 50% and 80% pop that Zomato and Nykaa respectively saw on their first day of trading.

“I don’t understand any of it (how share prices jump). I have never invested in a single stock or mutual fund in my life,” said Dahiya in opening day trading. “I have done only one thing: FD (fixed deposit) and paid my kids tuition (fees) with those FDs.”

Dahiya, who co-founded with PB Fintech Alok Bansal In 2008, told ET in an interview that the short-term focus on profits can be disastrous for shareholders and long-term value creation for companies like PolicyBazaar.

He said that the company is not taking any pressure on profits after the IPO.

He told ET that new age companies like PB Fintech cannot be evaluated on the basis of what they are today. “You’re undervaluing them for what they can become in five to 10 years’ time. Let’s not be fooled and try to force these companies to declare profits early. This will help shareholders over the long term.” would be cost-disastrous for … without a doubt.”

Dahiya’s remarks come as some investors are skeptical that new-age startups are not profitable and that growth alone will not suffice.

“Yes, my value in the stock market may go up as some may be excited (with quarterly gains) and will be even higher. That’s stupid, I’m not here to fool people. It’s not my job – I’m here to build a great company.”

In line with the same philosophy, he said he had told his anchor investors during pre-IPO talks that reviewing the company quarter-to-quarter would be a “waste of time.” “We’re managing as we build it for the next five-10 years.”

The company’s revenue from operations grew more than 35% to Rs 237 crore in the June quarter of FY 2022 as compared to a year ago. Its losses for the quarter jumped 85% year-on-year to over Rs 110 crore.

“We will not be foolish. We have created Policybazaar and Paisabazaar with $150 million. We are not frugal, but we don’t waste it (either). I think in future also our behavior will not change and it will remain the same. Will,” he said, reiterating the company’s long-term plans to pursue growth and grow new businesses.

Read also:
Info Edge, SoftBank among biggest winners in PolicyBazaar’s list

While selling insurance is its core business, PB Fintech does lending business under Paisabazaar and is experimenting with expanding its business into markets like Dubai apart from setting up an offline presence to bring more number of users into its fold. Is. Dahiya said it was his new chief executive Sarabvir Singh’s idea to go offline and it was his (Dahiya’s) fault that he did not do so earlier.

He added that the offline presence would result in a lot of conversions for users to buy insurance.

“We will continue to build efficiencies in core areas and continue to experiment. Our core area is already profitable. An easy way to do this is to stop all experiments and we will make a profit immediately but that is not right for the company and in fact we will double the experiments.”

According to him, these experiments will no longer generate profits for the company but will add unprecedented value over the next five to 10 years. But, it will not be “fearless” on expenses. “I am confident of profitability because of the renewal book. So, the profits are already there, and that’s a closer look and that’s what institutional investors have seen. ,

PB Fintech, going forward, will be focused in two broad areas: insurance and credit. “Paisabazaar already gets twice the traffic than Policybazaar. So, there’s a lot of data access out there for financial products. We may or may not do something in favor of investing, but we keep watching and that doesn’t mean we will do it.

PB Fintech is also building a better claims platform. Paisabazaar lends through partners and not through its books.

“I think in the long run, it will be stable (in revenue terms) with PolicyBazaar and the growth rate being the same as lending is equally a big opportunity,” Dahiya said. Lending products than insurance.

While Policybazaar sells insurance products from all companies, the company may consider partnering with insurers to create new products for consumers. He said that Policybazaar has to find a way to make the product.

“There’s no way out of it. We have to figure out how. We have to have the ability to make products for our consumers,” he said, “our partners do it or we don’t — we don’t know.”

Read also:
Why IPO-bound fintech startups should take a look at their US counterparts