Exotel crosses 400 Cr revenue in FY23; losses jump 2.5X

Cloud telephony platform Exotel has been bleeding in pursuit of growth, as evident from its financials for the fiscal year ending March 2023. The company released its annual results this week, originally due on September 30, 2023.

Exotel’s revenue from operations grew 32.1% to Rs 420 crore in FY23 from Rs 318 crore in FY22, its consolidated financial statements sourced from the Registrar of Companies (RoC) show.

The 13-year-old company offers voice and SMS contact center capabilities for businesses to manage their customer engagement over the cloud. The rendering of internet-enabled cloud communication services was the primary source of revenue for Exotel.

Income from software license, chatbot services, and the sale of its products including API(s), browser extension, software development kit, and mobile phone applications were other co-revenue channels for Exotel.

The Blume Ventures-backed firm generated 81% of its operating revenue from domestic services, with the remaining revenue coming from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa in FY23.

Moving towards the cost side, employee benefits accounted for 44.2% of the overall expenditure which increased 43.3% to Rs 245 crore in FY23 from Rs 171 crore in FY22.

The company’s spending on telephone-postage, legal, marketing (advertising cum promotional), hosting, and other overheads inflated its overall cost by 51.8% to Rs 554 crore in FY23 as compared to Rs 365 crore in FY22.

See TheKredible for the complete expense breakdown.

Expense Breakdown

FY22

Total ₹ 365 Cr

FY23

Total ₹ 554 Cr

• Employee benefit

• Telephone postage

• Legal professional

• Advertising promotional

• Hosting charges

• Others

To check complete Expense Breakdown visit thekredible.comView full data

The 43% and 65% surge in employee benefits and telephone/postage, respectively, led Exotel to post a 2.5X increase in losses to Rs 109 crore in FY23 from Rs 43 crore in FY22. Notably, the company was making profits during FY21 and FY20. Its ROCE and EBITDA margin worsened to -21.9% and -18.3%, respectively. On a unit level, it spent Rs 1.32 to earn a rupee in FY23.

Exotel certainly had a lot of hype and hopes around its future back in 2020, but those hopes seem to have been belied, if we consider the story since then. Slipping into losses aside, the firm has also grown below estimates at the time. Notably, the company had claimed at the time of its last fund raise in 2022 that it is growing at an annualized rate of 70% on a revenue run rate of $50 million, or almost 400 crores. Competition in the cloud telephony business might be one thing, but margins is a bigger issue. 

FY22-FY23

	FY22	FY23
EBITDA Margin	-4.88%	-18.34%
Expense/₹ of Op Revenue	₹1.15	₹1.32
ROCE	-4.70%	-21.90%

Exotel has raised over $100 million to date including $40 million led by Steadview Capital in 2022. According to the startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, A91 Partners is the largest external stakeholder with a 25.7% stake followed by Blume Ventures.

Head to TheKredible for the complete shareholding pattern.