Cleartrip spent Rs 608 Cr on discount and cashbacks for Rs 169 Cr net revenue in FY25

Flipkart-owned online travel aggregator (OTA) Cleartrip improved its financial performance in the fiscal year ending March 2025, with revenue growing 70% and losses declining 20%. However, the company spent over Rs 600 crore on discounts and cashbacks to achieve this scale.

Cleartrip’s net operating revenue surged 70% to Rs 169.3 crore in FY25 from Rs 99.7 crore in FY24, according to its annual filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

Cleartrip generated Rs 516.46 crore from service income in FY25, recording a 40% growth over FY24. It also earned Rs 248.38 crore from commissions and incentives, along with Rs 12.7 crore from other operating services. However, heavy discounts and cashbacks of Rs 608.2 crore during the year pulled its net operating revenue down to Rs 169.3 crore.

On the cost side, employee benefits were Cleartrip’s largest expense, accounting for 27% of total burn. These costs fell 40% in FY25 from Rs 400.5 crore in FY24. This includes Rs 52.65 crore in non-cash ESOP expenses. Excluding ESOPs, spending on salaries and wages stood at Rs 186.6 crore in the fiscal year ended March 2025.

Cleartrip spent Rs 102.16 crore on advertising and marketing in FY25, while commissions and brokerage costs surged over 80% to Rs 128.75 crore from Rs 70 crore in FY24. Finance costs also rose 50% to Rs 143.2 crore, and the company incurred Rs 78.65 crore in payment gateway charges.

Other overheads, including outsourcing, IT, and legal and professional services, pushed Cleartrip’s total expenses to Rs 885.8 crore in FY25, down over 10% from Rs 990.7 crore in FY24.

The Mumbai-based company’s 70% increase in revenue and control in its expenses led the company to cut its losses by 20% to Rs 651 crore in FY25, compared to Rs 810.3 crore, while its EBITDA margin stood at -334.78%.

On a unit basis, it spent Rs 5.23 to earn a rupee of operating revenue in FY25 which improved from around Rs 10 in FY24. As of March 2025, the company’s current assets stood at Rs 709.8 crore, including cash and bank balances of Rs 71.6 crore.

Cleartrip has become somewhat of an oddity in the Flipkart stable. Flipkart, which made almost Rs 6,400 crores from advertising in FY25, has not really done much with the OTA other than slap it on as a travel offering. But at these margins, does it even make sense? Would Flipkart be better off renting out the space to some other independent travel operator? One has to wonder, because quite frankly, the numbers, or Flipkart’s patience  don’t make sense.