Gurugram-based home services unicorn Urban Company narrowed its losses in the last financial year to Rs 308.4 crore from Rs 514.7 crore in the previous year, as it controlled its costs and grew its revenue.
The Ratan Tata-backed startup, which also counts Tiger Global and Prosus among its investors, reported a 45% jump in its consolidated operating revenue to Rs 636.6 crore in FY23, according to the annual statements it filed with the Registrar of Companies. In FY22, the company grew its revenue by 76.7% to Rs 437.6 crore.
The growth in revenue during FY23 comes amid protest from its gig workers, who have been unhappy with the company's unrealistic rating standards.
Founded in 2014 by Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Varun Khaitan and Raghav Chandra, Urban Company provides on-demand services including beauty and home services in 60 cities. It was last valued at about $2.8 billion, when it concluded its fourth employee stock options (Esop) sale programme worth $7.3 million in December 2021.
The company now claims to have about 5.3 million transacting users in the 12 months ended June 2023.
It derives over 90% of its revenue from its operations in India. This also grew 45% year-on-year to Rs 574 crore during the year. The segment is not profitable and reported an adjusted Ebitda (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) loss of Rs 176 crore during the year.
However, the company said in a blog that it achieved breakeven in the latest quarter ended June 2023. “Our strong unit economics with focused cost control will help us drive Ebitda improvement as the business scales,” it said.
Besides India, the company operates in Singapore, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Netherlands, and United Arab Emirates.
Urban Company incurred expenses of Rs 1,038.9 crore in FY23, marginally more than Rs 1,023.3 crore in FY22. Employee benefits and marketing expenses were responsible for more than half of them.
While employee costs have come down about 15% to Rs 377.1 crore during the year, advertising and promotion expenses grew slightly to Rs 258.8 crore in FY23 from Rs 228.2 crore in FY22.
