HomeLane sees a 21% increase in both revenue and loss in FY18, service provision cost soars

Home decor startup HomeLane has recorded a 21.88 per cent increase in revenue to Rs 40.88 crore in FY18 from Rs 33.55 crore in the preceding fiscal. The losses for the company also took a 21 per cent hike from Rs 24.2 crore to Rs 29.28 crore in a span of one fiscal year ending March 2018.

The expenses for the firm which earlier stood at Rs 57.75 crore in FY17, have soared to Rs 70.17 crore in latest fiscal, making this also a 21.5 per cent hike.

The revenue break up of the firm showcases a segregation of basic turnover between two major activities conducted by HomeLane - sale of modular furniture and services like modelling and installing.

Sale of furniture occupied majority 66.83 per cent of overall revenue amounting to Rs 27.32 crore. At the same time, service-based revenue stood at Rs 13.24 crore making it 32.39 per cent of the total.

The performance of the service segment has faced a decline over the year and it is visible by the fact that while the company spent Rs 0.83 to earn a single rupee from services in FY17, the figure increased to Rs 0.95 in FY18.

The Sequoia and the Accel-backed firm has raised multiple funding rounds to keep up with its future plans and the ongoing expenses in FY18. In the fiscal year, the firm has raised a total of Rs 50.21 crore through a mixture of Series D and B2 CCPS round and debentures.

Later, in the last month, the firm also raised Rs 24.41 crore from its two regular investors Sequoia and Accel.

Within the FY in question, the firm also acquired its competition Capricoast for Rs 90 crore, which it later shut down after absorbing the entire team. However, this acquisition paved the way for further growth and expansion plans of the company, for example, this led to HomeLane start its business in Delhi NCR.

With the almost stagnant growth in financials and the service segment of HomeLane’s business, it will be interesting to see if the firm is able to double its monthly revenue run rate by FY20, and expand to Tier - II and Tier - III cities by 2020, and most importantly how long it takes for the break-even.