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Lightspeed and Tiger Global foresaw a massive opportunity in digital ledger (online bahi-khata) in 2019 and the storied investors placed their bet on OkCredit. The potential of the company made the two investors pump in around $90 million along with other backers within a quarter.
Despite such conviction of investors, the company’s numbers do no credit to that conviction. Started its incorporation in 2016 (launched in 2017), OkCredit scored an operating revenue of Rs 26 lakh in FY18, later couldn't manage to generate any in FY19 and FY20.
Overall, the seven-year-old company has generated around Rs 9 crore revenue from operations since it launched while its outstanding losses mounted to Rs 428.5 crore at the end of FY23.
OkCredit’s revenue from operations grew over 21X to Rs 8.3 crore during the fiscal year ending March 2023 in comparison to Rs 39 lakh in FY22, its financial statements sourced from the Registrar of Companies shows.
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For the uninitiated, OkCredit is a digital ledger app for small and medium-sized businesses which lets them record payment transactions digitally. It made over 80% of its operating revenue from these services while the remaining 20% came from advertising and subscription.
Overall, the company made Rs 9.5 crore revenue in FY23 including Rs 1.24 crore from interest and gains on financial assets (non-operating revenue).
As per its website, the app is available in more than 10 local languages and has over 10 million downloads. According to TheKredible, it has raised $90 million to date including a $67 million worth Series B round in Sep 2019.
Employee benefit expenses emerged as the largest cost center forming 45.7% of the total expenses. This cost shrank 47% to Rs 26.14 crore in FY23 from Rs 49.46 crore in FY22. For context, OkCredit laid off around 35% of its workforce in February 2022 which was exclusively reported by Entrackr.
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Expense Breakdown
FY22
Total ₹ 115.91 Cr
FY23
Total ₹ 57.23 Cr
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Employee benefits
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Marketing & promotions
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Server rent
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IT & Communication
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Legal & professional
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Others
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Marketing expenses also dropped around 63% to Rs 14.17 crore in FY23 whereas it also cut down server, IT and communication costs significantly.
In the end, OkCredit’s overall expense declined 50.6% to Rs 57.23 crore in the last fiscal from Rs 115.91 crore in FY22. For complete details, visit here.
When it comes to the bottom line, the firm’s losses also went down 58% to Rs 47.7 crore in FY23 against Rs 113.6 crore in FY22. Its cash outflows from operations improved to Rs 44.7 crore during the last fiscal year.
Moreover, EBITDA margin and ROCE improved to -472.19% and -55.13% respectively. On a unit level, OkCredit spent Rs 6.9 to earn a rupee of operating revenue in the fiscal year ending March 2023.
FY22-FY23
| FY22 | FY23 | |
|---|---|---|
| Expense/Rupee of ops revenue | ₹297.21 | ₹6.90 |
| ROCE | -123.67% | -55.13% |
| EBITDA Margin | -4794.40% | -472.19% |
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OkCredit’s arch-rival KhataBook posted 14% growth in its scale to Rs 84 crore in FY23. It also competes with IndiaMart-backed Vyapar which reported Rs 20 crore revenue in FY22. It’s yet to report FY23 numbers.
The search for a goldmine in supporting bookkeeping at SME’s has probably been one of the more futile ones we will ever see on the startup ecosystem. For not only has it failed to deliver anything of substance vis a vis pitch projections, it also sucked in an impressive amount of funds in the process. Like many of our readers, we at Entrackr would also love to listen to the thesis at VCs that loosened their pursestrings in this case.
It is a sorry indictment of the kind of groupthink that can affect even the most hallowed meeting rooms that such massive monies were thrown at the problem for an extended period. When a simple walk outside the office to meet a few of the small business owners they hoped to profit from would have taught them so much more.
Update: The earlier version of the expense break down graph showed Rs 200 crore expense in FY23 and Rs 104 crore in FY22. The actual numbers are Rs 115 crore and Rs 57 crore respectively. We regret the error and updated the same.
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