Afinit (formerly Balancehero), the operator of the India alternative finance service well known as "True Balance," has moved to seek a KOSDAQ listing.
According to the Korea Exchange (KRX) and others on the 20th, Afinit filed for a preliminary review for listing with the KOSDAQ Market Division of the Korea Exchange on the 18th. Mirae Asset Securities and Hana Securities were appointed as lead underwriters.
The company is targeting a listing within the year and opted for a general listing rather than a special case, backed by last year's consolidation-based revenue of 169.1 billion won and net profit of 26 billion won.
Afinit traces its roots to Balancehero, a Korean Fintech startup better known in India for microloans, which began in 2014.
Chief Executive Lee Cheol-won, who had sold ringback tone solutions to Asian telecom operators at WiderThan, a subsidiary of SK Telecom, founded the company with the aim of targeting India's financial market.
Its core business is True Balance, a microloan service targeting financially underserved groups in India who have difficulty accessing traditional financial institutions, and it has executed more than 1 trillion won in cumulative loans. Cumulative users have surpassed 120 million.
Beyond lending, the company has expanded its business into brokering various financial products, including insurance. In particular, it built a platform business supplying the "alternative credit scoring system (ACS)" to Indian financial companies.
Its valuation after listing is being discussed at more than 500 billion won. In a 30 billion won pre-IPO (fundraising before listing) round conducted last year, it had already been valued at over 370 billion won.