News Post

Waycool posts Rs 1,251 Cr revenue and Rs 686 Cr loss in FY23

Entrackr · 2m

B2B food and agritech platform Waycool claims Rs 1,600 crore in revenue with the goal of operational break even in FY24. While the company is yet to release its financial statements for FY24, it recently disclosed its results for the fiscal year ending March 2023 after an 11-month delay. Entrackr has sifted through the firm’s regulatory filings to understand its financial health in FY23. Waycool’s revenue from operations grew by 62% to Rs 1,251 Crore in FY23 from Rs 772 Crore in FY22, its consolidated financial statements sourced from the Registrar of Companies show. The difference in the revenue figures for FY22 was due to the adoption of IND AS by the company. The firm reported Rs 927 crore revenue in FY22. Waycool is a full-stack supply chain player working with farmers and clients who source agricultural and dairy products from the company. The company has its 7 own consumer brands namely Madhuram, KitchenJi, DeziFresh, AllFresh and others. The collection from the sale of goods formed 98% of the total operating revenue which surged 60% to Rs 1,228 crore in FY23. Out of the total sale of goods, the finished goods ( the sale of its own brands) contributed 10% only while the rest of the sales came from traded goods. Income from commissions and cold storage management were some co-revenue drivers for Waycool. The company also added Rs 11 crore from interest on fixed deposits and non-current investments, tallying the overall income to Rs 1,262 crore in FY23. See TheKredible for the detailed revenue breakup. Since Waycool follows an inventory-led model, the cost of procurement of materials accounted for 61.51% of the total expenditure. In line with scale, this cost grew 58.2% to Rs 1,200 crore in FY23. The firm’s expenses on employee benefits, doubtful debts, advertising, transportation, and other overheads took its overall cost up by 71.3% to Rs 1,951 crore in FY23 from Rs 1,139 crore in FY22. Check TheKredible for the detailed expense breakdown. Note: We have excluded the expense of Rs 1,906 crore and 828 crore from FY23 and FY22 respectively which were incurred against the loss of fair value of the preference shares, the company’s spokesperson confirmed, after sending queries. Despite the decent scale, the company didn’t manage to control its costs, resulting in its losses surged by 89% to Rs 685 crore in FY23. The company spent Rs 1.56 to earn a rupee in FY23. FY22-FY23 FY22 FY23 EBITDA Margin -149.68% -199.66% Expense/₹ of Op Revenue ₹1.47 ₹1.56 ROCE N/A N/A While operational break-even might seem too ambitious in FY24 with these numbers, it is not impossible, considering Waycool is well past the investment stage now. However, the Chennai-based company has been struggling to find new investment and closed several initiatives in a bid to cut costs and extend the runway. According to sources, things aren’t looking great for Waycool and it would be exciting to watch whether it bounces back or wilts away on the lines of several promising venture-backed agritech startups.