Logistics firm Shadowfax has been growing at a rapid clip in the last two fiscal years and the company’s scale neared Rs 1,000 crore in FY22 from Rs 323 crore in FY20. After a pandemic-laden fiscal year (FY21), the Flipkart-backed company has doubled its scale with improved unit economics.
Shadowfax’s revenue from operations grew over 2X to Rs 990 crore during FY22 as compared to Rs 464 crore in FY21, the company’s annual financial statement with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) shows. Shadowfax made its entire revenue through logistics and delivery services.
The company also earned Rs 6.7 crore from interest and gain on current investments which pushed its total revenue to around Rs 997 crore.
Founded in 2015, Shadowfax is a full-fledged logistics solution firm covering e-commerce, hyperlocal and quick commerce. It claims to fulfill 1.1 million daily orders with its 3.5 million verified riders on the platform.
Logistics in India is powered by feet on the ground, as evident from payments made to delivery personnel. This cost formed 49% of the total expenditure which expanded over 2X to Rs 577 crore in FY22 from Rs 280.7 crore in FY21.
Running delivery vehicles and employee benefit expenses were the next cost elements during FY22. These expenses surged around 57% and 74% to Rs 235 crore and Rs 174 crore while it also incurred Rs 44.7 crore on rent & utility costs which include electricity, safety, and security.
The company also reported a cost of lost shipments worth Rs 38 crore during FY22. In total, Shadowfax’s annual expenditure spiked around 89% to Rs 1,173 crore in FY22 as compared to Rs 620 crore in FY21.
Despite a sharp rise in expenses, losses of the company grew only 32.3% to Rs 176 crore in FY22 against Rs 133 crore in FY21.
Coming to ratios, the EBITDA margin improved to -14.95% in FY22 which can be attributed to over two-fold growth in topline. On a unit level, Shadowfax has spent Rs 1.18 to earn a rupee of operating revenue.
Shadowfax has managed to demonstrate impressive scale in the last few years and its numbers are an indicator of high growth in e-commerce and hyperlocal (aka quick commerce) segments. Scale-wise, it will be the sixth largest logistics company after Delhivery, Ekart, Amazon Transport Services (ATS), Ecom Express, and XpressBees. The only shadow over the sector is the slowdown as indicated by the Delhivery management after its last quarter results.
