Bangalore-based Shadowfax Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which runs an eponymous business-to-business (B2B) logistics startup, posted gross revenue of Rs 34.07 crore for the year through March 2017, up more than three times from Rs 9.8 crore the year before, its filings with the Registrar of Companies show.
Operating revenue came in at Rs 31.73 crore, almost a similar rise over Rs 9.27 crore in the previous year.
At Rs 28.51 crore in FY17, net loss was slightly higher than Rs 25.57 crore in the year prior.
The company managed to contain losses despite gross expenditure surging nearly 77% to Rs 62.58 crore from Rs 35.37 crore in the previous year. This was mainly attributable to higher delivery, transportation and cluster management costs. Employee benefit expenses also rose over three-fold to Rs 18.88 crore from Rs 5.34 crore in the previous year, due mainly to the introduction of an employee stock option plan (ESOP).
"EBITDA is -Rs 23 crore on a revenue of Rs 34 crore. Last year, it was -Rs 25 crore on a revenue of Rs 9.8 crore.
The Rs 28 crore loss includes Rs 5.38 crore of non-cash expense for ESOPs," a company spokesperson said.
"Delivery cost includes all costs related to last-mile delivery. Also, transportation costs include the cost of transporting during middle-mile and first-mile part of delivery," the spokesperson explained.
Founded in May 2015 by Abhishek Bansal and Vaibhav Khandelwal, Shadowfax provides intra-city logistics services to neighbourhood merchants, grocery shops, pharmacies and e-commerce companies. It was set up as a food-only delivery player, but has diversified across verticals. It claims to complete more than 30,000 deliveries a day in 10 cities.
The company has so far raised $18.88 million from the likes of Eight Road Ventures, InnoVen Capital, Toppr founder Zishaan Hayath, and Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, according to VCCEdge, the data research arm of VCCircle.
Last month, the company announced that it was set to acquire the assets of Nuvo Logistics Pvt Ltd, which operates e-commerce-focussed reverse logistics platform Nuvo Ex.
Nuvo Ex previously operated online grocery venture PepperTap, which shut shop in April last year and pivoted to its current form.
The merger, expected to be completed in the next six months, will help the company expand to over 75 cities and have a combined network of over 7,000 delivery personnel and 400 minivans.
