AvenuesAI Q1 FY27: Big TPV Growth, Lower Take-Rate, and a Clear Pivot Toward AI-Led Fintech Infrastructure

AvenuesAI, formerly Infibeam Avenues, entered FY27 with a quarter that showed strong scale-up in payments volumes and reported profitability, alongside visible pressure on monetisation per transaction. For Q1 FY27, consolidated transaction processing value (TPV) reached INR 1,479 billion, up 74% year-on-year. Reported gross revenue from operations rose sharply to INR 26,804 million (up 109% year-on-year).

But the quarter also highlighted the core trade-off management has been signalling: volume-led growth can dilute take-rates. Net revenue was INR 1,475 million, down 3% year-on-year. The company attributed the softer net revenue trend to a combination of seasonality and take-rate compression in a competitive payments market. Even so, operating profitability expanded meaningfully. EBITDA (excluding other income) stood at INR 1,000 million, up 41% year-on-year, and profit after tax (PAT) came in at INR 848 million, up 45%.

The quarter in one line: scale is rising faster than monetisation

AvenuesAI disclosed that Payments NTR (net take rate) reduced to 5.3 basis points in Q1 FY27 from 10.4 basis points in Q1 FY26, a 49% year-on-year decline. Management described this as a function of mix and competitive pricing, while reiterating that net revenue is the right lens for tracking underlying progress.

Despite the lower take-rate, profitability improved because of cost discipline and operating leverage. On a net revenue base, the company reported an EBITDA margin of 68% and a PAT margin of 57% for the quarter.

Strategy: four pillars that management says will converge

In the earnings call, management framed AvenuesAI around four areas that are meant to reinforce each other: payments, consumer, intelligence, and credit. The messaging was consistent with the investor presentation’s flywheel narrative, where transaction data improves AI decisioning, which then improves success rates, automation, and margins.

Payments remains the foundation, with CCAvenue positioned as the monetisation engine. The company also referenced workflow-led integrations across use cases, including BillAvenue for bill payments and ResAvenue for hospitality reservations and payments. Management’s emphasis was not on adding payment methods, but on embedding payments deeper into merchant workflows.

On the consumer side, Rediff is being positioned as a distribution surface with a logged-in user base and communication layer. RediffOne is described as a business operating system combining commerce, communication, compliance, and intelligence, with payments embedded by default through CCAvenue. RediffPay, a UPI-based consumer payments platform, was described as progressing through a closed user group stage before production.

On intelligence, PhroneticAI is positioned as the control layer that turns data into actions across routing, retries, nudges, and risk decisions. Management introduced PayCentral, described as an agentic payment platform built on Google’s Agent Payments Protocol, aimed at enabling AI agents to transact directly.

On credit, the company reiterated an asset-light strategy: distributing credit through partnerships without taking lending risk on AvenuesAI’s balance sheet.

Regulation and partnerships: tangible building blocks this quarter

Two regulatory developments were highlighted as meaningful progress on the company’s payments infrastructure.

First, AvenuesAI received in-principle approval from the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) for a Retail Payment Services Category III license through Avenues World FZ LLC. Management described the UAE as one of its strongest international markets, and the approval as supportive of expanding the international payments suite.

Second, in India, the company received RBI authorisation to set up a payment system for the issuance and operation of Prepaid Payment Instruments under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007. This expands the company’s regulated capabilities beyond payment aggregation and bill payments.

On the credit distribution roadmap, AvenuesAI disclosed two strategic minority investments. It plans to acquire up to a 2.5% stake in Ratnaafin Capital, an NBFC with a lending book exceeding INR 2,000 crore, and approved an investment to acquire up to a 7% stake in Online PSB Loans (OPL), which it described as India’s largest public-sector-backed digital credit platform. Management stated that as these partnerships progress, merchant financing, checkout financing, and working capital products could be distributed through the company’s merchant ecosystem, while underwriting remains with regulated partners.

Enterprise AI: on-premise SLMs and PrivateGPT, but still early

Beyond payments and consumer distribution, AvenuesAI discussed building secure, on-premise AI solutions using small language models, designed to operate within client infrastructure. The company positioned this as a response to enterprise demand for sovereignty, security, and control of sensitive data.

It also referenced a planned entry into turnkey on-prem AI solutions through PrivateGPT. In the Q and A, management stated that this line is early-stage, and the target customers include enterprises where data sensitivity is critical. The company did not disclose revenue targets or a monetisation timeline for these AI initiatives.

Guidance: revenue growth expected, EPS intentionally protected

For FY27, AvenuesAI guided consolidated gross revenue in the range of INR 11,000 crore to INR 13,000 crore. It also guided FY27 EPS of INR 8.75 to INR 9.50 per share, based on a proposed post corporate action face value of INR 10 per share.

Management addressed why EPS guidance appears relatively flat versus the implied growth in gross revenue. The stated philosophy is to protect core earnings while reinvesting incremental cash generation into AI and new growth opportunities. The company also referenced a guardrail approach to profitability, indicating it does not want profitability to drop below a certain threshold as it invests for future growth.

What to track from here

The quarter made one thing clear: AvenuesAI is prioritising scale and ecosystem build-out, even if near-term take-rates remain under pressure. Investors will likely track whether new revenue streams begin to show up in net revenue, especially from value-added services, credit distribution, and any monetisable AI layers.

International expansion is another measurable goal. The company stated a target of 12% to 15% international contribution to payments net revenue by FY28, with UAE and Oman operational and Australia and the USA targeted to be operational by FY27.

For now, Q1 FY27 is best read as a quarter of strong volume growth, improving operating profitability, and heavy strategic signalling. The credibility test will be whether the AI and credit initiatives translate into net revenue expansion without destabilising the core payments engine.