Cars24’s Loss Surges 9.3X YoY To $248 Mn In FY22, Expenses Cross $1 Bn Mark

Used cars marketplace Cars24’s total loss jumped 9.3X to $248.09 Mn in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22) from $26.83 Mn in FY21, as per the Singapore filings of its parent company Global Car Group Ltd. 

The used cars marketplace’s loss skyrocketed as its expenses increased faster than its revenue from operations during the year under review.

Total income rose 2.2X to $803.63 Mn from $372.49 Mn in FY21. Revenue from operations more than doubled to $799.06 Mn from $369.89 Mn in the previous year.

The financial statements include Cars24’s operations in India, Australia, the UAE, Thailand, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia.

Last month, Inc42 reported that the startup’s loss from its India operations rose to INR 248 Cr in FY22 from INR 191.5 Cr in FY21, while total income increased 116% to INR 6,008.2 Cr from INR 2,775.9 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

Coming back to the Singapore filings, Cars24’s expenses crossed the $1 Bn mark in FY22, surging 2.6X to $1.05 Bn from $399.32 Mn in FY21. Purchase of traded goods accounted for the biggest chunk of expenses at $926.61 Mn, a jump of 2.3X from $400.22 Mn in FY21. 

Other expenses, including expenditures on advertising, customer care, rent and leases, car handling, power and fuel, among others, rose to $131.03 Mn from $26.62 Mn in FY21.

Cars24 spent $54.31 Mn on advertising and promotional activities during FY22, nearly 5X higher than $11.07 Mn in FY21. Employee benefits expenses also increased nearly 3X to $92.04 Mn from $31.05 Mn in the previous year.

In terms of unit economics, Cars24 spent $1.31 to earn every $1 in FY22.

Founded in 2015 by Vikram Chopra, Gajendra Jangid, Ruchit Agarwal and Mehul Agrawal, Cars24 offers a platform for car owners to sell their used cars while also allowing users to purchase used cars from its site or one of the company’s branches. 

It competes against OLX and Quikr, among others.

The startup, backed by the likes of SoftBank, Sequoia India and DST Global, fired 600 employees last year in a bid to cut costs.

The IPO-bound unicorn saw several high-level exits following the layoffs, as Kingshuk Sanyal, vice president and business head, and Mrinal Sinha, chief human resources officer, resigned from their posts. Further, its global CTO Jitendra Agrawal also left the organisation last year.

Car24, which entered the unicorn club in 2020, has raised $1.3 Bn in funding to date.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.