Last-mile logistics startup Loadshare saw an over threefold jump in its scale during FY22 when compared to two fiscal years prior. The Tiger Global-backed company surpassed Rs 360 crore in collection during FY22, up from Rs 104 crore in FY20.
Loadshare provides logistics solutions which includes 10-minute quick commerce, 30-minute food deliveries, intraday e-commerce deliveries, and regional trucking to warehouses. Its operating revenue grew 90% Y-O-Y to Rs 361 crore in FY22 from Rs 190 crore in FY21.
The Bengaluru-based company claims to process over 300K last-mile deliveries per day and serves over 200 clients. Income from B2B delivery formed 65.4% of the total operating income which surged 120% to Rs 236 crore in FY22. The rest of the revenue came from B2C delivery which grew 50.6% to Rs 125 crore in FY22.
Being a logistics platform, delivery charges and related costs were the largest cost center for Loadshare which formed 65% of the total expenditure. In proportion to the scale, this cost surged 86.2% to Rs 324 crore in FY22.
Its employee benefit expenses grew 89.2% to Rs 70 crore during FY22. This includes Rs 11.1 crore as ESOP cost which was non-cash in nature. Loadshare added another Rs 16.45 crore towards legal and professional charges, pushing its overall cost by 117.5% to Rs 498 crore in FY22 from Rs 229 crore in FY21.
Coming to the bottom line, Loadshare’s losses jumped over 3X to Rs 138 core in FY22 from Rs 40 crore in FY21. Notably, it recorded an expense of Rs 58.5 crore against the change in fair value of equity shares, a non-cash item that led the company to steep losses.
Its ROCE and EBITDA margin stood at -56.17% and -35.96% respectively. On a unit level, the company spent Rs 1.38 to earn a rupee of operating revenue.
Loadshare is in direct competition with several prominent players including Delhivery which went public in May 2022 and reported a substantial revenue of Rs 7,241 crore during FY22. Shadowfax is another key competitor that approached Rs 1,000 crore in revenue in FY22 while its losses grew only 32.3% to Rs 176 crore.
The last mile delivery market, as we have pointed out earlier, offers an obvious opportunity, but also has lower entry barriers and consequently, intense competition. One would expect a firm burning money to gain a foothold, as Loadshare has done, to have created some strong longer term competencies and relationships to ensure profitability can be targeted. The market has been under stress for some time now, as firms try to raise prices in a relatively inelastic market. It will be a load of work no doubt to get customers to pay up more, and how successfully that is done will decide the fate of Loadshare as well as many other startups in the space.
