Startup Deep Dive : Oxyzo — Oxyzo: OfBusiness lending arm that earned Rs 375 crore profit on Rs 1,494 crore revenue in FY26

Oxyzo is a lending company based in Gurugram, India, that provides credit to small and medium businesses and is the financial services arm of OfBusiness.

This Startup Deep Dive explains what Oxyzo does, how it makes money, who backs it, how it compares with rivals and what could go wrong, using publicly available information. It is educational and not investment advice. Last updated: October 2026.

Oxyzo in Brief

  • What it is: Oxyzo is an Indian SME lending NBFC company based in Gurugram.
  • Who it serves: consumers, merchants, banks, lenders and enterprises.
  • Oxyzo is the lending arm of OfBusiness and offers credit to SMEs, mainly cash flow-aligned loans for buying raw materials such as metals, polymers, chemicals and agro products.
  • It has entered fund management with a maiden credit fund and has entered the marketplace business.
  • It serves SMEs and emerging corporates; average ticket size is about Rs 2.5 crore and roughly 70% of the loan book is secured (FY24 profile).
  • Funding: About $263.5 million equity (data provider estimate); another report says Rs 1,963 crore primary equity raised.

Oxyzo Quick Facts

Company Oxyzo
Founded 2016
Headquarters Gurugram
Founders Asish Mohapatra, Ruchi Kalra, Vasant Sridhar, Bhuvan Gupta
Sector SME lending NBFC
Total funding About $263.5 million equity (data provider estimate); another report says Rs 1,963 crore primary equity raised
Latest round $200 million Series A at a $1 billion valuation, March 2022 (reported)
Valuation About $1 billion at the March 2022 Series A (reported)
Website oxyzo.in

Figures marked “reported” come from published reports and may differ between sources; “Not disclosed” means no reliable public figure was found.

What Is Oxyzo?

Oxyzo operates in the SME lending NBFC space in India. Understanding a company like this starts with three questions: who is the customer, what painful problem is being solved, and why the solution is better than the alternatives. The sections below apply that lens to Oxyzo.

  • Oxyzo is the lending arm of OfBusiness and offers credit to SMEs, mainly cash flow-aligned loans for buying raw materials such as metals, polymers, chemicals and agro products.
  • It has entered fund management with a maiden credit fund and has entered the marketplace business.
  • It serves SMEs and emerging corporates; average ticket size is about Rs 2.5 crore and roughly 70% of the loan book is secured (FY24 profile).
  • It has raised debt, including Rs 533 crore led by Neo Group and Rs 100 crore through NCDs from AK Capital.

The Origin Story of Oxyzo

Every company starts from a noticed gap and a team willing to commit to closing it. Strong origin stories are specific: a clear problem, a founding team with relevant skills, and an early product that real customers could test. Founder-market fit, meaning the team’s lived experience or technical depth in the domain, tends to predict how fast a young company learns.

  • Founders: Asish Mohapatra, Ruchi Kalra, Vasant Sridhar, Bhuvan Gupta.
  • Oxyzo is the financial services arm of OfBusiness, which holds about 70% of it (reported).
  • Founding year reports differ: most sources say 2016, while one magazine profile says it was started in 2018 by Asish Mohapatra and Ruchi Kalra, a husband and wife team.
  • Ruchi Kalra is co-founder and CEO; the OfBusiness founders also include Vasant Sridhar and Bhuvan Gupta.
  • Its main competition is informal trade credit, and it positions itself as a cheaper alternative to creditor financing.

Key Milestones and Challenges

No startup grows in a straight line. Early years usually involve slow adoption, product rewrites, hiring mistakes and funding gaps. In the SME lending NBFC sector the common turning points are a first paying customer, a regulatory approval, a successful product demonstration or a funding round that lets the team invest ahead of demand. How a team responds to setbacks says more about resilience than any single headline.

  • March 2022: raised $200M Series A led by Alpha Wave Global and Tiger Global, becoming the first startup to reach unicorn status at Series A (one later profile dates the unicorn status to May 2022).
  • FY24: operating revenue grew 59% to Rs 903 crore and net profit rose 47% to Rs 290 crore.
  • FY25: operating revenue reached about Rs 1,207 crore and net profit about Rs 339 crore.
  • FY26: operating revenue Rs 1,494 crore, PAT Rs 375 crore and AUM Rs 11,822 crore (reported).
  • Parent OfBusiness converted into a public entity and renamed OFB Tech Limited as part of IPO plans (reported).

Oxyzo Funding and Investors

Funding history shows how much outside confidence a company has attracted and how long it can operate before needing more capital. Figures below are reported and may differ between sources; valuation figures are estimates unless the company has confirmed them.

  • Series A, March 2022: $200 million led by Alpha Wave Global and Tiger Global, with Norwest Venture Partners, Matrix Partners (now Z47) and Creation Investments (reported); post-round stakes were reported as Alpha Wave 7.4%, Tiger Global 4.5%, Norwest 3.8%, Creation 2% and Matrix 1.9%, with OfBusiness group about 74%.
  • Debt: Rs 533 crore raised led by Neo Group, and Rs 100 crore of NCDs (reported).

How Does Oxyzo Make Money? (Business Model)

A business model describes who pays, how often and how much it costs to serve them. Strong models show repeat usage, improving margins with scale and acquisition channels that do not depend only on paid spend. Weak models show one-off sales, rising costs and growth that stops when spending stops. For companies selling to consumers, merchants, banks, lenders and enterprises, sales cycles and contract size matter as much as headline growth.

  • Interest income from loans made up about 95% of FY25 operating revenue (about Rs 1,141 crore, reported).
  • Average yield is 14% to 15% (FY24 profile), and finance costs were the largest expense at about Rs 439 crore in FY25.
  • Customers can use borrowings to buy raw materials through the OfBusiness platform, linking lending with commerce.

The Numbers: Oxyzo Financials

Financial figures show whether growth is turning into a self-sustaining business. Small and private companies often disclose little, so any number below is included only if it was found in public reporting.

  • FY23: net profit Rs 197 crore; operating revenue Rs 569 crore (reported).
  • FY24: operating revenue Rs 903 crore, up 59%; net profit Rs 290 crore, up 47%; net worth Rs 2,600 crore; gross NPA 1.02% (company-stated).
  • FY25: operating revenue Rs 1,207 crore (up 33.7%); net profit Rs 339 crore, up 17% (outlets differ slightly between Rs 330 and 340 crore); total expenses Rs 755 crore.
  • FY26: operating revenue Rs 1,494 crore (up 23%), PAT Rs 375 crore (up 10%), AUM Rs 11,822 crore (up 28%), loan book Rs 10,545 crore, gross NPA 0.74%, net NPA 0.3%, net worth Rs 3,327 crore, CRAR 29% (reported).

Market Opportunity for Oxyzo

Market size is easy to exaggerate, so a useful approach separates the total market from the portion a company can realistically reach with its current product and distribution. The main forces behind demand in this sector are the scale of UPI, rising digital lending, growing participation in investing and insurance, and the digitisation of small merchants. Each of these widens the opportunity, but capital efficiency and execution decide who captures it.

  • Serves Indian SMEs, many linked to the OfBusiness ecosystem; one FY25 report claims more than 5,000 SMEs served.
  • Competes mainly with informal trade credit and other SME lenders.

Technology and Product at Oxyzo

Technology is rarely the whole moat, but it drives speed, cost and customer experience. A practical way to assess it is to separate the capability the company controls from the commodity infrastructure it rents. In this sector the important factors are uptime, security, fraud controls, integrations with banks and the speed of onboarding customers.

  • Uses technology-enabled underwriting and the OfBusiness platform for raw material purchases and tender matching.

Team and Culture at Oxyzo

Teams are the most important and least measurable asset of a young company. Look at how complementary the founders’ skills are, how deep the second layer of leadership is, and how the company hires and retains specialists. Culture shows up in small repeated behaviours: how quickly bad news travels upward and whether commitments to customers are kept.

  • Ruchi Kalra is co-founder and CEO.
  • Asish Mohapatra (OfBusiness CEO and co-founder) is co-founder.

Oxyzo Competitors: Competitive Landscape

A fair competitive analysis names direct rivals, adjacent players who could move into the space, and the customer’s default alternative. Durable advantages include proprietary data or technology, licences and approvals, brand trust, switching costs and cost leadership.

Competitor How it differs
Informal trade credit Described as Oxyzo's main competitor; creditors extending supplier credit at higher cost.
Red Fort Capital Named as a top competitor in a company database.
CredAble Supply chain finance platform named as a top competitor in a company database.
UGRO Capital SME lender named in the same database listing.
APAC Financial Services SME lender named in the same database listing.

Risks and Challenges for Oxyzo

  • Interest income dominates revenue (about 95%), so earnings depend on loan book quality and funding costs.
  • Majority ownership by OfBusiness ties its fortunes to the parent group.
  • Rising finance costs: up 38% in FY25.
  • Regulatory risk: rules from the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI or NPCI can change economics or business scope quickly.
  • Concentration risk: dependence on a few partners, banks or payment rails can create single points of failure.

Risk is not a reason to avoid a company; it is a reason to price it correctly and to monitor the right indicators over time. Regulation in this sector is shaped by the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and NPCI.

Oxyzo Growth Outlook: What to Watch

  • The FY24 profile cited a target of 30%-plus AUM growth, and ICRA expected loan book growth of 15% to 20% over the medium term.
  • Oxyzo planned a separate private equity raise, while the parent has converted to a public entity for its own IPO plans.
  • Key indicators: transaction value, take rate, active users, credit quality and cost of acquiring each customer.
  • Funding position: Whether Oxyzo can reach its next milestone before needing new capital.
  • Regulation: Changes from the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and NPCI.

Industry Context: Where Oxyzo Fits

India's financial technology sector has been shaped by public digital infrastructure, especially UPI, along with Aadhaar-based identity, the account aggregator framework and regulation from the RBI, SEBI and IRDAI. These rails let startups reach customers and merchants at very low cost, but also expose them to fast-changing rules on licensing, data and lending conduct.

As payments become a low-margin commodity, fintech companies increasingly compete on distribution, merchant services, credit, wealth and insurance products. Sustainable profit usually depends on compliance strength, cost control and the quality of customer relationships rather than transaction volume alone.

For readers new to this field, a useful habit is to separate announcements from evidence. A plan, a partnership or a funding headline describes intent, while a delivered product, a paying customer or an audited financial statement describes results. Comparing the two over time shows how reliably a company turns promises into outcomes.

Bull Case and Bear Case for Oxyzo

An investment thesis is a short, testable statement of why a company could become far more valuable, together with what evidence would prove it wrong. The points below are general to this sector and are not forecasts for Oxyzo.

Bull case

  • Digital payments and credit continue to grow, widening the market.
  • Strong compliance and distribution create durable advantages.
  • Cross-selling to existing customers can lift revenue per user.

Bear case

  • Regulatory shifts can change economics overnight.
  • Free or low-fee products make profit hard to reach.
  • Fraud, outages and partner dependence can hurt trust.

Lessons Founders and Investors Can Take from Oxyzo

Studying a company in the SME lending NBFC space offers lessons that go beyond any single firm. The points below are general lessons for the sector and are not claims about Oxyzo.

  • Compliance is a growth enabler in financial services, not just a cost, because licences decide what a company is allowed to sell.
  • Distribution and customer trust often matter more than the underlying payment or lending technology.
  • Products that earn from services and credit tend to be steadier than ones that depend on free transactions.
  • Dependence on a single bank partner or rail creates risk that should be managed early.
  • Fraud prevention and uptime are core product features, not back-office tasks.

How to Evaluate Oxyzo as a Startup

  • Customer clarity: Can Oxyzo name its customer and the problem it solves in one sentence?
  • Evidence of demand: Look for repeat customers, signed contracts or measurable usage rather than announcements alone.
  • Economics: Check whether margins improve as volume grows.
  • Execution: Compare announced timelines with what has actually been delivered.
  • Funding runway: Estimate how long current capital lasts at the present spending rate.
  • Regulatory standing: Confirm required approvals are in place.
  • Customer concentration: Check whether a few customers account for most of the revenue.
  • Management depth: Look for experienced leaders beyond the founders and a stable core team.

The Takeaway

Oxyzo is part of India’s growing SME lending NBFC ecosystem. The useful lesson from studying it is the discipline of asking structured questions about customers, economics, advantage and resilience. Companies that answer them well, repeatedly and under pressure are the ones that endure. Readers should treat any single report, ranking or funding headline as one input among many, and should re-check key facts against recent company announcements. Because public information on young companies is often limited, patience in verifying claims is part of good analysis. Public sources can also describe the same company in different ways, so it is worth checking dates, definitions and whether a figure refers to revenue, total income or transaction value, and whether it covers one entity or a wider group, before drawing conclusions. Small differences in rounding, currency conversion or reporting periods can also change how a figure reads. Comparing the same figure across several recent reports helps show whether it is stable or has changed over time. This article is educational and is not investment advice.

  • Clear customers and repeat demand matter more than announcements.
  • Regulation and capital needs shape how fast a startup in this sector can grow.
  • Track a few leading indicators over time rather than one headline metric.

Oxyzo FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions

What is Oxyzo?

Oxyzo is a lending company based in Gurugram, India, that provides credit to small and medium businesses and is the financial services arm of OfBusiness. It is profiled in the Startup Deep Dive series, which explains business model, funding, competitors and risks.

Who founded Oxyzo?

Oxyzo was founded by Asish Mohapatra, Ruchi Kalra, Vasant Sridhar, Bhuvan Gupta, and the company reports a founding year of 2016.

How much funding has Oxyzo raised?

About $263.5 million equity (data provider estimate); another report says Rs 1,963 crore primary equity raised. Funding figures are reported and may differ between sources, so readers should check the latest company announcements.

How does Oxyzo make money?

Oxyzo earns revenue from its SME lending NBFC products and services sold to consumers, merchants, banks, lenders and enterprises. The exact revenue mix is described in the business model section and is not fully disclosed publicly.

Who are the competitors of Oxyzo?

Reported rivals include Informal trade credit, Red Fort Capital, CredAble, UGRO Capital. See the competitor comparison above for how they differ.

What are the main risks for Oxyzo?

Main risks include rules from the rbi, sebi, irdai or npci can change economics or business scope quickly, funding and capital needs, competition and regulation by the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and NPCI. This is educational content, not investment advice.

Related Startup Deep Dives: Screener.in — Screener.in: two CA brothers from Lucknow built a bootstrapped stock tool reported at about 88% EBITDA margin | Nightingales — short profile of what is publicly known. Browse the full Startup Deep Dive series.

Source

Source: Publicly available data, published reports, industry research, and other credible sources.

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