Agritech startup Ecozen continues to blaze a growth trail, evident from its scale which surged around 3X in the last two reported fiscal years to Rs 122.5 crore (FY22) from Rs 42.34 crore (FY20).
Importantly, the company has registered positive EBITDA and was on the verge of moving into the black as far as bottomline goes during FY22.
Ecozen’s revenue from operations grew 71.3% to Rs 122.58 crore in FY22 from Rs 71.54 crore in FY21, according to its consolidated financial statements filed with the Registrar of Companies.
Ecozen offers climate-smart deep tech solutions and core technology stacks including motor controls, IoT, and energy storage that leverage solar power. The company has two core products Ecotron and Ecofrost.
The sale of solar and related products accounted for 90% of its collections which rose 66.4% to Rs 110.45 crore in FY22. The rest came from the installation of a solar pumping system, increasing 48.8% to Rs 12.13 crore during FY22.
On the cost side, the cost of procurement of materials formed a significant chunk (79.4%) of the total expenditure. In line with its scale, this cost climbed 65.1% to Rs 98.45 crore in FY22. Ecozen’s employee benefit costs jumped 32.9% to Rs 10.18 crore during FY22.
The company added another Rs 4.17 crore towards freight and warranty, pushing its overall cost by 56.6% to Rs 124 crore in FY22.
With a decent scale and controlled expenditure, Ecozen’s losses declined by 88% to Rs 37 lakhs during FY22. Its ROCE and EBITDA margin were registered positive at 8.67% and 3.62% in FY22. On a unit level, the company spent Rs 1.01 to earn a rupee of operating revenue.
With the firm flirting with net profits for two years now, it can justifiably be proud of what it has achieved in a tough market. Serving rural India with storage and energy solutions is no walk in the park, and the firm’s success has a much wider social impact than comparable firms. Both its cold storage solution and the water pumping solution have a strong demand in the rural markets, and affordability is the only challenge. As the firm grows, it is bound to find a solution to that issue too, especially on the back of a customer base that has been built painstakingly.
