Ahead of filing for an IPO, digital lending startup Fibe posted its strongest financial performance yet in the fiscal year FY26. The startup, which was erstwhile known as Early Salary, reported a consolidated net profit of ₹257.5 Cr, up over 126% from ₹113.7 Cr in FY25.
Its operating revenue for the fiscal zoomed 31% to ₹1,584.5 Cr from ₹1,208.9 Cr in the previous fiscal. Its top line more than doubled from ₹771.9 Cr in FY24.
Including other income of ₹16.9 Cr, the company’s total income for the fiscal stood at ₹1,601.5 Cr. Meanwhile, total expenses rose 19% to ₹1,231.5 Cr in FY26 from ₹1,036.6 Cr in FY25, driven by higher finance costs, employee expenses and operating expenditure.
The growth spurt in the fiscal year ahead was largely driven by expansion of Fibe’s lending portfolio.
Interest income, the company’s single-largest source of revenue, rose 33% YoY to ₹1,023.2 Cr, while fee and commission income jumped 26% to ₹393.6 Cr.
Income from guarantee premiums emerged as the fastest-growing revenue stream, rising 41% YoY to ₹146.3 Cr. Together, these non-interest income streams have steadily become a larger contributor to Fibe’s revenue mix even as lending remains its core business.
The company’s profit margins also improved considerably after coming under pressure in FY25. Net profit margin expanded to 16.3% in FY26 from 9.4% a year earlier.
Total loans on the company’s books increased 64% YoY to ₹5,020.3 Cr from ₹3,052.9 Cr in FY25.
The startup disclosed its financial performance in its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP), which it filed with the SEBI earlier today. The proposed IPO is likely to comprise a fresh issue of shares worth up to ₹750 Cr and an offer-for-sale (OFS) of more than 4 Cr shares by existing investors, including TPG, Norwest Capital, Eight Roads Ventures, Piramal Finance and Chiratae Ventures.
Of the fresh capital, Fibe intends to deploy ₹562.6 Cr from the fresh issue into its NBFC subsidiary, EarlySalary Services Pvt Ltd (ESPL), over the next two financial years to strengthen its lending operations.
How Fibe Makes Money
At first glance, Fibe looks like another lending tech business. Customers open the app, apply for a personal loan, receive money within minutes and repay it over the near future.
However, unlike businesses that primarily act as loan sourcing partners for banks and NBFCs, Fibe operates across multiple layers of the lending value chain. It originates loans, keeps a sizable portion on its own balance sheet, earns interest income like a traditional lender, collects fees for facilitating loans.
It also offers embedded financing products through partners, distributes insurance-linked guarantees and earns servicing income from loans funded by other financial institutions.
This mix has allowed the company to build multiple revenue streams instead of relying solely on commissions or lending spreads.
The biggest contributor to Fibe’s business is straightforward lending.
When a customer takes a loan that is financed from Fibe’s NBFC arm ESPL, it earns interest over the life cycle of the loan. Interest income now accounts for nearly 65% of the company’s operating revenue, making it the single-largest contributor to Fibe’s business.
But holding loans also means assuming credit risk.
If borrowers default, Fibe absorbs the losses. That is why credit impairment remains one of the company’s largest expenses.
In FY26, it set aside ₹420 Cr towards expected credit losses. While this was lower than the ₹466.2 Cr recorded in FY25, it still represented one of the largest costs impacting the startup’s bottom line.
The second major revenue stream comes from fee and commission income.
For many loans it provides to customers, Fibe supplies the capital from banks or NBFCs like Northern Arc, InCred Financial, HDB Financial. It completes customer onboarding, performs credit assessment, manages documentation and services the loan after disbursement for a fee.
While fee and commission income grew at a slower pace than interest income, it remains a significant contributor to overall revenue because it generally carries higher margins than lending income.
Unlike interest income, fee revenue is not exposed to borrower defaults or funding costs. It is, therefore, an important source of relatively asset-light earnings.
Another business line that has expanded rapidly is guarantee premium income.
In practice, this involves credit protection products attached to loans. Borrowers or lending partners pay a premium that provides protection against specified credit events. Fibe earns income from distributing or facilitating these guarantee products alongside its lending offerings.
As consumer lending becomes increasingly embedded into ecommerce, healthcare, education and other digital ecosystems, these ancillary financial products have become an additional source of monetisation.
The company’s diversified model also extends beyond B2C lending.
Fibe has built financing infrastructure for merchants, online platforms and enterprise partners that embed credit directly into customer journeys. Whether it is a medical procedure, education financing or a consumer purchase, borrowers often interact with the partner platform rather than visiting Fibe independently.
The fintech startup underwrites the loans in real time using proprietary risk models, digital KYC, bank statement analysis, bureau information and alternative data.
Once approved, the loan may either be funded by Fibe itself or by one of its lending partners, depending on the structure of the transaction.
This flexibility allows it to decide whether it wants the recurring interest income associated with retaining the loan or the lighter capital requirements associated with originating loans for other institutions.
The financial statements suggest that Fibe is gradually transitioning from a fintech that primarily facilitates lending into one that increasingly behaves like a tech-led lender with multiple monetisation engines.