Despite 4X jump in revenue, Toppr's financials show a need for improvement

The past two years have been quite eventful for startups in the edtech segment with several new companies opting to join, massive funding inflow, and growth in financial performance.

Recently, Toppr Technologies Pvt. Ltd., a Mumbai based edtech company has filed its annual reports for FY18 with Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

As per the reports, the company saw a 3.95X jump in revenue from Rs 6.5 crore in FY17 to Rs 25.66 crore. The core business of the firm comes from the subscription fees, which in itself saw a 7.5X jump in earnings from Rs 3.07 crore to Rs 22.98 crore in FY18.

The expenses of the SAIF Partners-backed firm increased by 76.75 per cent from Rs 48.39 crore to Rs 85.53 crore. Employee benefit took the largest cut worth Rs 45.86 crore, an 87.4 per cent increase from Rs 24.77 crore in FY17.

Consequently, the losses of the firm increased by a mere 43 per cent, from Rs 41.86 crore to Rs 59.87 crore. This showcases that even while the expense and loss figure took a hike, the magnitude of that increase was lower than in revenue, implying an improvement in the profitability metrics.

However, the loss figure still stands larger than the revenue, calling for a need for further improvement if the company wants to head towards profitability.

Recently, Toppr had also joined the funding bandwagon with pocketing $35 million led by Kaizen Capital in a Series C round. Existing investors SAIF Partners, Helion Ventures, Axis Capital and FIL Capital also participated in the round.

Prior to this, the company had also raised Rs 17.05 crore from Alteria Capital in May 2018. During the fiscal year, the company had raised Rs 45 crore led by SAIF Partners in a Series B round where existing investors Helion Ventures, FIL Capital and WGG International also participated.

Meanwhile, BYJU's, a direct competitor of Toppr, raised a massive $540 million round at $3.6 billion valuation and showed a wholesome improvement in the financials with a 2X jump in revenue to Rs 500 crore, and a 40 per cent decrease in losses.