Mumbai : PB Fintech Ltd, parent of online insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar, has cut its losses 187 crore in the September quarter. In an interview, Yashish Dahiya, Chairman and CEO, said that it is choosing growth rather than profit. A year after listing on the stock exchanges, the stock has fallen more than 50% from its listing price. Dahiya talked about investor interest in the sector and the growth lever for the company. Edited excerpt:
The strong unit is the economics major. Everyone is focusing on this and some startups are taking new initiatives to control the burn rate. How do you see it?
We started our new initiative after the market focused on profitability. We are not curtailing or eliminating our new initiatives. We’re only getting a little more efficient, that’s exactly what we’ll do anyway. We are not trying to be profitable. Being profitable is an automatic consequence of growth. our aim is 1,000 crore in profit till FY26-27.
How have some of the new-age company stocks listed last year performed, do you think investors have been a little too critical of these tech stocks?
Investors invest their money to make money. If they think they will lose money, they will sell; If they think they are going to benefit, they will buy. I don’t think they are trying to spoil any area. Maybe they don’t trust tech companies. It’s their choice. I am also an investor. I am the largest individual investor in PolicyBazaar. In a way, we all make up our mind about what we think will create future value. People who think tech companies are good or bad are just ripples. You can’t make business decisions based on waves. We are not trying to be profitable in a hurry or rush for profits. Being profitable is indispensable for us. What we have to focus on is growth and many other pieces and that’s what we continue to do. We grew 105% year over year. This is no small increase in our scale.
We have seen several companies, which have lacked funding and have muted valuations, have become very attractive acquisition targets. What are your inorganic plans?
Zero. We are not looking for acquisitions. We like Build Over Buy.. We have a great team, we love it.
Many founders prioritize growth over strong unit economics. Is this the case with Policybazaar?
Our profit depends on development. We are not reducing costs. You can quickly become profitable by slowing down growth, but that won’t do any more trading.
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