CashKaro nears Rs 100 Cr revenue in FY21, costs in control

Cashback and coupons platform CashKaro’s scale has grown at a rapid clip during the pandemic hit fiscal year (FY21). The Gurguram-based startup, backed by Kalaari Capital and Ratan Tata, has recorded 74% growth in its operating income in FY21.

CashKaro’s income grew to Rs 98.33 crore in FY21 from Rs 56.49 crore in the previous year, the company’s regulatory filings with MCA show.

As per Fintrackr’s analysis, the majority of CashKaro’s revenue came in the form of commissions from retailers and software development services. Apart from operating income, CashKaro has made Rs 1.39 crore from interest on fixed deposits and other investments.

CashKaro provides cashback, price comparison of products and coupon codes redeemable across 1,500 retailers. Besides fashion, electronics and personal care verticals,it has been expanding its B2B social commerce experiment. At present, the company claims over 10,000 kirana stores placing orders via CashKaro. 

In acting as a large third-party affiliate platform, controlling costs becomes critical for the firm with increased scale, something it seems to be achieving finally. 

With the growth in scale, the company’s expenses have fallen behind topline growth, up 66.8% to Rs 106.59 crore in FY21 from Rs 63.9 crore in the preceding fiscal year (FY20). Cashback expenses was the biggest cost center for the company which grew 57.6% to Rs 71.39 crore in FY21 from Rs 45.3 crore in FY20.

Cashback expenses were followed by advertising and marketing costs which increased 2.9X to Rs 14.75 crore in FY21 from Rs 5.07 crore in the previous financial year.  

The Swati and Rohan Bhargava-led company spent Rs 11.95 crore on employee benefit expenses in FY21. This is an increase of 34.4% from the previous year where this cost stood at Rs 8.89 crore. Legal and professional fees remain the same in both years with the cost of Rs 1.41 crore.

While the company’s scale took a significant jump in FY21, its losses didn’t see any increment. CashKaro posted a loss of Rs 6.92 crore during the last fiscal year which stood at around the same figure in FY20.

On a unit level, CashKaro spent Rs 1.08 rupee to earn a rupee in FY21. Cash outflow of the company during the period was Rs 21.39 crore, an increase of 274% when compared to Rs 5.72 crore in the previous year.

Despite the growth in revenue, CashKaro has managed to check expenses and kept its losses under Rs 7 crore. Its financial performance in FY21 has been notable if we compare it to a majority of growth-stage startups. And, the company has reached here with modest funding. CashKaro has only raised around $15 million so far including a $10 million Series B round in September 2020.

While answering a few Entrackr’s queries related to its FY21’s numbers, CashKaro claimed that it’s set to grow 2X in scale to Rs 200 crore in the ongoing fiscal year (FY22) with losses capped below Rs 10 crore mark.  If it does that, it will finally be in a space to skip a series C funding round in favour of bigger things.