Udaan’s FY22 Loss Jumps 1.2X YoY To INR 3,076 Cr, Revenue Nears INR 10K Cr Mark

B2B ecommerce unicorn Udaan’s net loss surged 1.2X to INR 3,075.80 Cr in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22) from INR 2,503.30 Cr in the previous year.

The startup’s revenue from operations or revenue from contracts jumped 1.7X to INR 9,943.8 Cr from INR 5,919 Cr in FY21, as per the filings by its parent company Trustroot Internet Private Limited in Singapore.

The B2B unicorn writes up a contract with its users (the businesses) and then provides services such as delivery services, advertisement and credit facilities (via its subsidiary Hiveloop Capital Private Limited), the revenue from which is aggregated under revenue from contracts.

Total income also rose 1.7X to INR 9,943.8 Cr from INR 5,966.3 Cr in FY21. 

Meanwhile, in line with the rise in revenue, total expenses surged 1.5X to INR 12,997.90 Cr from INR 8,449.10 Cr in FY21. The purchase of traded goods accounted for the biggest chunk of expenditure. The startup spent INR 9,415.60 Cr on the purchase of goods for trade, a rise of 1.6X from INR 5,824.50 Cr in FY21.

Logistics cost also rose 1.2X to INR 551.60 Cr from INR 470.70 Cr in FY21, while staff costs grew 1.3X to INR 1,203.50 Cr in FY22 from INR 923.50 Cr in the previous year.

Udaan spent INR 592.6 Cr on outsourced manpower in FY22 as against INR 620.5 Cr in FY21. The B2B unicorn’s marketing expense also rose 1.7X to INR 68.4 Cr from INR 40.8 Cr in FY21.

In terms of unit economics, Udaan spent INR 1.31 to earn every INR 1 in FY22.

Founded in 2016 by former Flipkart employees Sujeet Kumar, Vaibhav Gupta and Amod Malviya, Udaan claims to have a network of 3 Mn retailers and 30K+ sellers across India, selling products from more than 5 Lakh product categories in 1,000+ Indian cities.

It is backed by the likes of Microsoft, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Tencent and has raised close to $1.8 Bn in funding to date. Udaan joined the unicorn club in 2018, after a $225 Mn funding round. 

The IPO-bound unicorn raised more than $400 Mn in debt funding across three rounds last year: $250 Mn in January, $120 Mn in October and around $35-40 Mn in November.

The startup fired at least 530 employees across two layoff rounds in 2022, according to Inc42’s ‘Indian Startup Layoff Tracker’, as the funding winter hit the Indian ecommerce sector hard.