Mobility platform Intrcity, which owns SmartBus and RailYatri, has recorded a nearly six-fold jump in its gross revenue in the last two fiscal years: from Rs 49 crore in FY21 to Rs 288 crore in FY23. Significantly, the firm also narrowed down its loss by two-thirds.
Intrcity’s gross revenue surged 2.4X to Rs 288 crore in FY23 from Rs 118 crore in FY22, the company co-founder and CEO Kapil Raizada told Entrackr in a telephonic conversation.
Founded by Raizada and Manish Rathi, Intrcity runs on 40 routes and has 230 buses across 14 states. The company leases buses from large fleet operators and manages them end-to-end. It currently works with about 35 such operators. Raizada said the average occupancy rate hovered at around 91% in FY23.
Intrcity claims one-third of its transaction comes from its website and application, while the rest is tapped from aggregators and offline channels (read as organized agents).
“About 50% of the total sales are from existing users,” Raizada added.
Transportation costs, including all the operators and vehicle expenses, formed around 70% of the total expenditure in FY23, according to Raizada. This cost surged 76.3% to Rs 210 crore in FY23.
Raizada did not disclose the complete expense breakup for FY23 but added that its employee benefits, advertising, legal and professional fees, led the total costs up by about 87.7% to Rs 304 crore in the said fiscal year.
Intrcity’s losses shrank by 63% to Rs 16 crore in FY23, according to the co-founder. “FY24 will be the first full fiscal year in which we will break-even and post a decent profit,” he said.
The company’s EBITDA margin improved to -6% during FY23. As per data provided by the firm, it spent Rs 1.07 to earn a unit of operating revenue in the last fiscal.
Intercity travel by buses is set to grow with the improvement in road infra, and to that extent, many analysts might still be underestimating the potential here. With quality of buses and the experience itself also improving , Intrcity is certainly in the right place at the right time. The firm seems to have done it right so far, and will hope for the collective impact of all similar players to continue the good work.
