INTERVIEW: Route Mobile, the firm behind your OTPs, promoter reveals plan to tap the Apple ecosystem⁠

• Route Mobile ₹600 crore IPO opens tomorrow.
• In an exclusive chat with Business Insider, Non-Executive Director Sandip Gupta and the Chief Strategy Officer Gautam Badalia revealed details about the company’s growth prospects, roadmap, and opportunities.
• Check out the latest news and updates on Business Insider.

COVID-19 brought about a pause in the primary market, but the action is heating up again now. And the next one in line is Route Mobile, the company behind your banking OTPs to Uber messages and automated calls.

Route Mobile’s IPO opens tomorrow. The company is looking to raise ₹600 crore, which it plans to use for business expansion. This is going to be the second IPO this month.

Here are the Route Mobile IPO details:

Founded in 2004, this Mumbai-based cloud communication platform services provider offers digital token services from Whatsapp to Viber and Wechat to automated calls. And now they are in talks with Apple to increase its business footprint in every corner of the world, the company told Business Insider.

The Managing Director Rajdip Gupta and Non-Executive Director Sandip Gupta are the promoters of the company. Both the promoters will sell ₹180 crore worth of shares through this IPO.

In an exclusive chat with Business Insider, Non-Executive Director Sandip Gupta and the Chief Strategy Officer Gautam Badalia revealed details about the company’s growth prospects and opportunities going forward. These are the edited excerpts from the chat.

Can you detail us more about your company? You cater to enterprises, (OTT) and mobile network operators (MNO); what are the big brands or companies that are associated with you?

We are an enterprise that provides digital communication channels to the enterprises. Our customer base is from retails, banks to cab operators, and e-commerce. And whichever company wants to communicate with its customers, we provide them with a channel. And this channel can be SMS, voice call; it may email, it may be WhatsApp, it may be Viber, or can be a video. So these are the channels we provide to the enterprises so that they can efficiently communicate with the clients.

For example, when you swipe your card, you get a debit alert, so that is done mostly by our SMS channels. Or you are on their OTT platform, and you need an OTP to download the content. So that OTP goes from our channel. We also provide a second layer in that. That is a voice channel when the client opts for an OTP via voice.

How are you planning to use the IPO money?

So we are looking at expanding both vertically and horizontally. Either entering into new geographies or consolidating into the existing one. We are also looking at expanding our product line.

How has been the lockdown period for the company?

So when you say lockdown, it has propelled our business more, as a lot of digital transactions happened during the period. So lockdown has given more value addition to our portfolio. So the overall lockdown period was better for us. Even our revenue growth was much better compared to the same quarter last year.


You have subsidiaries globally. What percent of your operation's revenue comes from foreign, and how much of it is from Indian companies?

So in terms of revenue, 20% of our billing comes in Indian currency. The rest of the billing is in foreign currency. A large part of which is in USD and Euro. Total India revenue will be somewhere around 40% export and domestic business. Rest of which is outside India in foreign places like the UAE, UK, Malta, and Nigeria.


Are there any directly listed peers for competition? And if there are, what makes you stand out compared to them?

So we are a global player. When it comes to the competition, we compete globally with companies like Infobip and others. In India, wherever we go, we have local competitors. In India, we have competition from Gupshup and few others.

As people mostly stayed home during the lockdown, and that led to the growth in your business, what are the forward-looking business strategies that you have in mind to keep the momentum going?

During the COVID-19 (lockdown), digital transactions have grown. And at the same time, many businesses were shut too, like hospitality and tourism businesses. Now when the economy is opening up, digital transactions will be much more needed. So with more transactions, it will add more value to the business.

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