MobiKwik’s Q2 Snapshot, Pixxel Clears The Air & More

MobiKwik Turns It Around

MobiKwik minted its highest-ever quarterly profit in Q2 FY27. The record performance came on the back of its financial services business delivering healthy revenue growth, while a tight leash on expenses helped the fintech company improve margins. 

Here’s a quick glance at MobiKwik’s Q2 FY27 numbers: 

• Net profit of ₹11.8 Cr compared to a net loss of ₹28.6 Cr in Q2 FY26
• Operating revenue rose 9.4% YoY to ₹295.7 Cr 
• Total expenses declined a marginal 1.8% YoY to ₹290.9 Cr
• EBITDA profit stood at ₹22.7 Cr against an EBITDA loss of ₹6.4 Cr in the year ago quarter

Lending Grabs The Spotlight: MobiKwik’s financial services business picked up in a big way in Q2 as the company disbursed a lot more loans and partnered with more lending partners during the quarter. At the same time, better loan book quality helped reduce expenses and improved the vertical’s gross profit. 

Payments’ Mixed Show: Although MobiKwik’s payments business processed much higher GMV in Q2 on a YoY basis, revenue barely grew. This is because the transaction mix skewed heavily towards payments that generate lower revenue. While this helped bring down payments gateway costs, the business’ take rate took a major hit.

Unlocking Operating Leverage: The quarter also saw both of MobiKwik’s core businesses expand their contribution margins, which helped offset the increased fixed expenses. Going forward, the company sees growing AI adoption in lending, engineering, customer experience, and risk management to further improve operating leverage and efficiency.

As the listed fintech company looks for a way to translate higher transactions into more revenue, here is a closer look at MobiKwik’s Q2 FY27 results…

From The Editor’s Desk

Pixxel CEO Clears Air On US Foray

• Cofounder and CEO Awais Ahmed has clarified that the spacetech startup remains Indian-owned, managed and controlled amid criticism over the launch of its US subsidiary, Pixxel Federal.
• The clarification comes after fellow spacetech startup GalaxEye highlighted its decision to operate through a single Indian entity, indirectly questioning the practice of setting up multiple entities across jurisdictions.
• Pixxel launched Pixxel Federal to pursue US government contracts across civilian, defence and intelligence agencies. The startup, which has raised around $195 Mn to date, also plans to go public in India in the coming years.

Fireside Ventures’ Cofounder Quits

• Cofounder and partner Vinay Singh is stepping down from the venture capital giant after nearly a decade-long stint. The investment firm is yet to announce his successor.
• Singh now plans to “explore” the agentic commerce space and its implications for the future of consumption.
• In his decade-long tenure, Singh grew the firm into a major consumer-focused VC firm. It has so far backed more than 65 Indian startups and manages assets of around $650 Mn across four funds.

ESDS’ Q2 Profit Surge

• The AI company reported a 40.7% YoY jump in consolidated net profit to ₹31.1 Cr in Q2 FY27, while operating revenue surged 48% to ₹138.3 Cr.
• The company’s EBITDA rose 18.3% YoY to ₹57.8 Cr, even as its EBITDA margin narrowed to 41.8% from 52% a year ago. Total expenses increased 63.7% to ₹103.5 Cr.
• ESDS secured a $1.25 Bn AI cloud infrastructure deal with an Australia-based neocloud provider, with revenue expected from Q3 FY27. The company is also expanding its AI infrastructure capabilities through GPU clusters and its SWARAJ Cloud platform.

Record October For UPI

• UPI transaction volume rose 5.8% MoM to a record 25.47 Bn in October, while transaction value increased 7.4% to ₹31.53 Lakh Cr, according to NPCI data.
• October marked the first time UPI transactions crossed 25 Bn in volume and ₹30 Lakh Cr in value, driven partly by festive-season spending. On a YoY basis, transaction volume grew 23%, while value rose 16%.
• The record growth comes ahead of the proposed rollout of MDR charges on select UPI payments above ₹2,000. NPCI deferred the implementation until after Diwali, with a revised date yet to be announced.

Pronto Founder’s Physical AI Bet

• Pronto founder Anjali Sardana’s physical AI venture Provision Labs has acquired Mumbai-based hardware startup Basilisk for an undisclosed sum. As part of the deal, Basilisk founder Shourya Watwani will join Provision and lead its hardware efforts.
• Founded in 2023, Basilisk is focused on perception technologies, which help machines interpret their surroundings. The startup claims to have developed a 3D hand-tracking model and built the first version of a tactile glove to capture touch-related data. 
• This comes as Sardana recently launched Provision Labs to collect data for training and testing physical AI systems. The startup has also ramped up hiring of engineering and research teams across San Francisco, Toronto, and Bengaluru.

Inc42 Markets

Inc42 Startup Spotlight

How Indrajaal Is Building India’s Shield Against Hostile Drones

As drones become cheaper and autonomous, defending borders and critical infrastructure against them is becoming more and more harder. To fix this gap, Indrajaal is building an integrated AI platform to detect, identify and neutralise hostile drones in real time.

Eyes In The Skies: Founded in 2024, Indrajaal is building a counter-drone ecosystem to secure India’s airspace. Its SkyOS platform brings together radars, radio-frequency sensors, cameras and AI to identify aerial threats and execute responses. It also offers a mobile counter-drone vehicle (Ranger), a spoofer called Repulsor and SkyCop, an interceptor drone.

Hunting Hostile Drones: Indrajaal claims that its systems are deployed at installations belonging to the Indian Army, Indian Navy and agencies under the Ministry of Home Affairs. On the back of this, the startup closed FY26 with a revenue of ₹100 Cr and is targeting a top line of ₹300 Cr in FY27. 

The Road Ahead: Indrajaal now plans to raise ₹420 Cr in a Series A round in the near term to expand manufacturing, R&D and its footprint in the Middle East and Europe. The startup also wants to build an autonomous airspace ecosystem for aerial transport. With India’s defence tech sector projected to become a $19 Bn opportunity by 2030, here’s how Indrajaal’s AI stack is securing Indian skies…

Infographic Of The Day

Flipkart has been picking up stakes in Indian startups for more than a decade now. From PhonePe to Myntra, here are the investments made by the ecommerce giant in homegrown new-age tech ventures over the years…

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