Accel and Peak XV-backed grocery brand Apna Mart revenue jumps 86% in FY24

Following eight-fold growth in FY23, Bharat-focused franchise-led grocery chain Apna Mart delivered another strong performance, achieving an 85.6% year-on-year spike in its operating scale in FY24. However, the company's losses also grew by 50% but remained under Rs 35 crore during this period.

Three-year-old Apna Mart’s revenue from operations grew to Rs 59.4 crore in the last fiscal year  from Rs 32 crore in FY23, its annual financial statements sourced from the Registrar of Companies (RoC) show.

Founded by Chetan Garg and Abhishek Singh, Apna Mart is a franchise-driven omnichannel grocery and FMCG chain that delivers within 15 minutes. It operates in 14 cities including Ranchi, Hazaribagh and Bilaspur.

The sale of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) was the sole source of revenue in FY24. Apna Mart also added Rs 3.6 crore from interest on deposits and mutual fund redemption, bringing its overall income to Rs 63 crore during the last fiscal year, compared to Rs 32.2 crore in FY23.

For the consumer goods store, the cost of procurement for products accounted for 61% of the overall expenditure. To the tune of scale, this cost increased by 85% to Rs 58.4 crore in FY24 from Rs 31.6 crore in FY23. 

Its employee benefits surged by 82.4% to Rs 16.6 crore in FY24, including a Rs 2 crore non-cash ESOP cost. Advertising, legal, and manpower charges were among the other major overheads that pushed the firm’s total expenditure up by 77.8% to Rs 96 crore in FY24 from Rs 54 crore in FY23.

On the back of increased burn on procurement and employee benefits, Apna Mart's losses grew 51.4% year-on-year to Rs 33 crore in FY24. Its ROCE and EBITDA margin stood at -57.7% and -49.76%, respectively. The firm’s expense-to-earnings ratio stood at Rs 1.62 in FY24. 

Apna Mart has total current assets of Rs 28.3 crore including a cash balance of Rs 1 crore at the end of the fiscal year ending March 2024. 

According to the startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, Apna Mart has raised over $14 million in funding to date. Backed by Accel Partners, Peak XV Partners, Titan Capital, Disruptors Capital, and Sparrow Capital among others, the firm is currently valued at Rs 397 crore (approximately $48 million). Its enterprise value to revenue multiple stood at 6.68X in the previous fiscal year.

In a fast evolving sector line quick commerce, Apna Mart’s focus on tier 2 cities is a huge question, considering how difficult it has been to turn a profit in those markets.  It's scale also doesn't offer any significant procurement advantage yet. We believe that the firm has many challenges to tackle before it can breathe easy.  A Franchisee based model might have helped control costs, and losses somewhat, but it shd be interesting to see how far that can travel.