Online freight aggregator Rivigo posted a rapid rise in revenue for the year through March 2017, but its losses widened multi-fold because of higher expenses.
Revenue for 2016-17 increased 170% to Rs 401.8 crore from Rs 149 crore the year before, filings with the Registrar of Companies showed. Losses shot up to Rs 137 crore from Rs 5 crore.
Total expenditure tripled to Rs 525 crore, with other expenses increasing at the same pace to Rs 388 crore. Finance costs climbed to Rs 23 crore from Rs 6.78 crore, the filings showed.
"Though the short-term profitability of the company is impacted due to major expenditure being made for expansion, the management is taking necessary steps to accelerate the company’s performance and to make it a profitable concern," Rivigo said in the filings.
Rivigo, founded in 2014 by former McKinsey & Co. consultants Deepak Garg and Gazal Kalra, has raised over $122 million till date, according to VCCEdge, the data research platform of News Corp VCCircle.
In November 2016, private equity firm Warburg Pincus invested $75 million (Rs 500 crore) for a minority stake in a Series C round, which valued the company at $440 million. In December 2015, the logistics firm had raised $30 million (around Rs 200 crore), including a small debt finance portion, in a Series B round from existing investor SAIF Partners and others.
In August this year, media reports suggested that the company was in talks with Japanese Internet major SoftBank to raise $100-$400 million. Also, the company hired former Microsoft executive Pramod Gupta as its chief financial officer this month.
Rivigo provides logistics services solutions including full truck-load, part truck-load and cold chain to clients in industries such as e-commerce, consumer goods, automotive, retail and pharmaceuticals.
It claims it can reduce the transit time of trucks in India by 50-70% compared to typical truck operators. It owns and operates over 2,000 trucks and has a pan-India network across 150 locations. It launched a truck marketplace subsidiary called Vyom last year.
