Hiring Platform Apna’s FY24 Loss More Than Halves To INR 51 Cr

Professional networking unicorn Apna trimmed its consolidated net loss by over 57% to INR 51.3 Cr in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) from INR 120.3 Cr in the previous fiscal year due to improvement in its EBITDA margin.

The Tiger Global-backed startup’s EBITDA loss declined to INR 35.2 Cr during the year under review from INR 105.1 Cr in FY23. As a result, its EBITDA margin improved by 30 percentage points to -28% in FY24 from -58% in the previous fiscal year.

However, the improvement in the Bengaluru-headquartered startup’s bottom line came at the cost of its top line. Its operating revenue tumbled over 29% to INR 127.6 Cr during the reported period from INR 180.3 Cr in FY23, largely due to a sharp decline in income from software development support services.

Including other income of INR 12.2 Cr, the company’s total revenue stood at INR 139.8 Cr during the year under review.

Founded in 2019 by Nirmit Parikh, Apna initially endorsed itself as a LinkedIn-like hiring platform for the blue- and grey-collared workforce. In 2021, it also began posting job listings for the white-collar segment.

The same year, the startup entered the unicorn club after raising $100 Mn in a Series C funding round led by Tiger Global Management. Apna has raised over $193 Mn in funding to date and counts the likes of Lightspeed, Sequoia Capital, GSV Ventures, among others, as its investors.

At present, Apna claims to have nearly 60 Mn users and serves more than 7 Lakh small and medium business employers and enterprises. Its enterprise customers include Zomato, Lenskart, Flipkart, Paytm, TVS, among others.

It currently has over 50 Lakh active job openings across 43 segments on its platform and has a presence in more than 70 cities.

Revenue Breakdown

Apna, which competes against the likes of LinkedIn, Info Edge-owned Naukri, and Indeed, saw revenue from its recruitment solutions more than double to INR 35.6 Cr in FY24 from INR 16.6 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

The startup also provides upskilling services to workers. It raked in INR 29 Lakh from its skilling services during the year under review, down nearly 28% from INR 40 Lakh in FY23.

Apna earned a lion’s share of its revenue from its software development support services during the year under review. However, income from this vertical almost halved to INR 91.6 Cr in FY24 from INR 180.3 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

Zooming Into Expenses

Amid a degrowth in its top line, Apna’s overall expenses fell over 37% to INR 191 Cr during the year under review from INR 308.4 Cr in FY23.

Employee Benefits Expenses: While this was the biggest cost driver for the recruitment startup, the spending under this head declined almost 40% to INR 123 Cr in FY24 from INR 203.8 Cr a year ago. This included ESOP expenses to the tune of INR 9.6 Cr.

Advertising Promotional Expenses: The early talent hiring platform spent INR 37.3 Cr for business promotion in FY24, nearly 40% lower than INR 62.1 Cr it spent in this bracket in the previous fiscal year.

Earlier this week, the union labour ministry signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Apna to bring over 10 Lakh job opportunities annually to the National Career Service (NCS) portal.

Launched in 2015, NCS is a national portal, which provides digital services like job placement, vacancy notification, information on formal training programmes and on-the-job training to job seekers. 

Under the partnership, Apna will post job listings on the NCS. While Apna will gain access to NCS’ candidate database, the labour ministry will facilitate integration via the online and offline interface.