Tiger Global-backed GOAT Brand Labs scales over 8X in FY23

D2C brand aggregator GOAT Brand Labs secured $50 million in funding as part of its Series A round at the onset of FY23. The funding powered the company to an over eightfold growth during that period.

GOAT Brand Labs’ revenue from operations surged 746% to Rs 139.6 crore in FY23 from Rs 16.5 crore in FY22, its annual financial statements filed by the group company in Singapore show.

GOAT is a marketplace roll-up platform that acquires direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands and scales them with its expertise. The company has around 19 subsidiaries under its portfolio and has done a bunch of acquisitions since its inception, including Abhishti, Doggie Dabbas, Frangipani, Hipkoo The Label Life, Voylla, and Leafy Tales.

The sale of products from its acquired brands is the primary source of revenue of GOAT Brand Labs. It also made Rs 17.98 crore from non-operating activities, taking the total income to SGD 25.5 million or Rs 157.6 crore in FY23.

For the D2C brand aggregator, the cost of procurement of products formed 25% of the overall expenditure. This cost surged 6X to Rs 61 crore in FY23 from Rs 10 crore in FY22.

Its employee benefits, selling and marketing, finance, legal/professional and other overheads catalyzed the overall expenditure by 395% to Rs 237.87 crore in FY23 from Rs 48 crore in FY22.

See TheKredible for the detailed expenditure.

Expense Breakdown

FY22

Total ₹ 48.02 Cr

FY23

Total ₹ 237.87 Cr

• Cost of sales

• Selling and marketing

• Finance cost

• Employee benefits

• Administrative & others

To check complete Expense Breakdown visit thekredible.comView full data

Notably, the company invested SGD 11.31 million (Rs 70 crore) including in the acquisition of the brand where it spent SGD 10.62 million (Rs 65.6 crore) during FY23, according to the cash flow statements filed by the group company in Singapore.

The growth in marketing and employee benefits led to an increase in losses by 158% to Rs 80.28 crore in FY23 from Rs 31 crore in FY22. Its ROCE and EBITDA margins stood at -25% and -22%, respectively. 

FY22-FY23

	FY22	FY23
EBITDA Margin	-161%	-22%
Expense/₹ of Op Revenue	₹2.91	₹1.70
ROCE	-12%	-25%

On a unit level, it spent Rs 1.70 to earn one rupee in FY23.

GOAT Brand Labs has raised over $87 million to date across rounds. According to the startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, Tiger Global is the largest external stakeholder followed by Flipkart and Mayfieled India.

Head to TheKredible for the complete shareholding pattern.

At a time when D2C brands face the prospect of showing a viable bottomline over topline, GOAT Brand Labs will also have to face up to the same challenge soon. While it has just about hit its growth straps,  going ahead, it will be under pressure to show growth momentum can overtake momentum on expenses comfortably. Not doing so will not impact just valuations, but viability as well.