Back

There's a company called Apna. It was the fastest company to become a "Unicorn" in India. It raised $200 Million in less than two years with ZERO revenues. Its FY23 financials are out. In FY22, Apna showed in its regulatory filings that its revenues were INR 65 Cr at a loss of INR 112 Cr. But that was total BS. The company masked its actual revenues by billing "technical support services" to its parent company in US, and showing that as revenue. That's like you spending money and sending the bill to your father, later calling it "sales". Its real revenue, i.e., money earned through recruitment solutions, was 2 Lakh only. Yes. $2500, or INR 2 Lakhs. That's what the company made from "recruitment solutions" in FY22. A so called unicorn with close to INR 1600 Cr in funding, and three years behind it. What about FY23? This year, continuing the spirit of financial engineering, the company showed INR 180 Crore in total revenues at a loss of INR 120 Cr. However, if you read the financials' fine print (I did), it showed that out of that INR 180 Cr, 163 Cr came from "technical support services" billed to Papa. Actual revenues, i.e., what came from recruitment solutions, were INR 17 Cr only. Now a "unicorn" in the recruitment space, with four years behind it, making INR 17 Cr from its core business at a cumulative expense of 470 Cr. The same co who made nothing last year at a cumulative expense of INR 240 Cr. This should be crazy. But it's not. Because that's how it is for Apna. To think of it, Apna wanted to be a professional social network for Blue Collar workforce. Like Linkedin, but for electricians, plumbers, beauticians, etc. The brilliant founders must have talked to a carpenter once and figured out, "Man! There should be a Linkedin for these guys. They'll totally use it!". Now this idea should have died in that conversation itself. Someone should have slapped some sense at some point. Instead, Apna first got $12.5 Million, and then $70 M, and then $100 M more. With no revenues. And now, after raising INR 1600 Cr, it's probably dawned on the founders that that's a pretty shitty idea. So now Apna is no longer a social network for Blue Collar folks, it's a recruitment platform for everyone. Just like Naukri, Indeed, Monster, Shine, etc. With no differentiation whatsoever. Haha! What a joke... This stupidity is bizarre, of course. But the fact that this BS raised not 1.6, but 1600 Cr should make you wonder about how decision making must have happened at the halls of those VC kingdoms. There's no PMF SheMF here. No traction shraction. No nothing. No "rules" were applied here, and now the company is posting BS financials and no one's talking about it either. Nice. But Apna must have about 900 Cr still in the bank. A few more years of fun? P.S. I'm building Seneca. VCs should read the Open Pitch (https://bit.ly/3P70mFr) and INVEST. People who'd like a distraction free smartphone for their family, please join our WAITLIST (https://bit.ly/47rZBwP)