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E-comm unicorn DealShare’s gross revenue nosedives 75% in FY24

Entrackr · 1m

DealShare underwent a management change in the last fiscal year as three co-founders left the firm, which has visibly impacted its financial performance in FY24. The company’s gross scale declined by 75% in the fiscal year ending March 2024, while losses decreased by 66%. DealShare’s gross revenue from operations fell to Rs 499 crore in FY24 from Rs 1,963 crore in FY23, its consolidated financial statement sourced from the Registrar of Companies (RoC) shows. Collection from traded goods shrank 74.7% to Rs 495.8 crore for the Jaipur-based company, whereas income from marketing services also narrowed 44.3% to Rs 3.3 crore during the last fiscal year. Cost of Material was the largest burn for the company which stood at Rs 529.3 crore in the last fiscal year while it incurred Rs 99 crore on employee benefit expenses which decreased 54.7%. Meanwhile, depreciation and amortization expenditures were reduced by 58.8% to Rs 14.75 crore. With other expenses of Rs 123.58 crore, its total expenses fell 69.9% to Rs 768.18 crore during the last fiscal year. While the gross scale dwindled significantly, the firm managed to cut down losses by 66% to Rs 167.7 crore in FY24 from Rs 502 crore in FY23. Its ROCE and EBITDA margin stood at -12.2% and -25.26%, respectively, on a unit basis, DealShare spent Rs 1.54 to earn a rupee in FY24. As of March 31, 2024, DealShare had a cash and cash equivalents of Rs 108.64 crore while bank balance (excluding cash equivalents) jumped three fold to Rs 292.3 crore from Rs 94 crore in the previous year. Meanwhile, its trade receivables decreased to Rs 525.7 crore in FY24. The last fiscal year (FY24) was quite challenging for DealShare as the firm let go of more than 100 employees and it had to shut down its B2B vertical. Out of four, three co-founders have left the firm and currently, its retail business chief Kamaldeep Singh is leading the firm. According to startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, DealShare has raised $393 million to date from investors like Tiger Global, ADIA, Alpha Wave, and Kora Investment. Soon after becoming a unicorn in January 2022, it raised another $45 million at a valuation of $1.7 billion. If the exit of three founders was not enough, the sharp drop clearly indicates all is not well with the firm. In this season of wholesale changes, a new leadership team seems keener to start on a clean slate perhaps, by withdrawing from many deals and processes that the previous founders found acceptable. One hopes they have good reasons for that. It is not an uncommon problem in India to have founders holding on to the ‘secret sauce’ that keeps their forms humming, leading to a sharp drop in case the relevant person leaves. The hope usually is that the firm will reach enough scale and credibility to manage on its own. In this case, that has clearly not happened quickly enough for DealShare, despite significant topline growth. A 75% decline from a significant size indicates deeper issues at the firm. Or that it would take much more than a single financial year to resolve. We would comfortably place DealShare outside the Unicorn club for starters, if investors haven’t already done so.