Rapido’s operating revenue nears Rs 650 Cr in FY24; cuts losses by 45%

Prosus-backed mobility unicorn Rapido has grown 4.4 times over the past two fiscal years—from Rs 145 crore in FY22 to Rs 648 crore in FY24. The ride-hailing firm also cut its losses by 45% in the fiscal year ending March 2024, thanks to effective cost management.

Rapido’s revenue from operations grew 46.3% to Rs 648 crore in FY24 from Rs 443 crore in FY23, its consolidated financial statements sourced from the Registrar of Companies (RoC) show.

Net Income earned from the Rapido platform for rendering transportation services covering two/three and four-wheelers formed 55.9% of the operating revenue, which increased 48.4% to Rs 362 crore in FY24. However, the gross platform income from these services stood at Rs 505 crore, which includes Rs 144 crore in customer discounts.

Revenue from the delivery and subscription services recorded at Rs 265 crore and Rs 19 crore, growing at 39.5% and 171.4%, respectively, in FY24. Other allied services and interest income from non-operating activities tallied the firm’s overall revenue to Rs 695 crore in FY24, as compared to Rs 497 crore in FY23.

Check TheKredible for more details.

Incentives paid to partners were the largest cost center for the ride-hailing platform, accounting for 43% of total expenses. The company effectively managed this cost, reducing it by 11% to Rs 460 crore in the last fiscal year.

Rapido also cut down employee costs by 16.9% to Rs 172 crore while marketing expenses were down 10.8% to Rs 214 crore in the last fiscal. Technology, support services, legal, rent, and other overheads took Rapido’s overall cost to Rs 1,066 crore in FY24.

See TheKredible for the complete expense breakdown.

Consistent scaling and controlled expenditure across departments helped Rapido reduce losses by 45% – down to Rs 371 crore in FY24 from Rs 675 crore in FY23. Its ROCE and EBITDA margins stood at -90.7% and -52.5%, respectively. On a per-unit basis, the Swiggy-backed company spent Rs 1.65 to earn one rupee in FY24.

Rapido’s bank balance, excluding cash equivalents, dropped 88.1% to Rs 16.39 crore in FY24, while cash equivalents saw a similar decline of 75.3%, decreasing to Rs 71.71 crore. In contrast, trade receivables doubled, from Rs 16 crore in FY23 to Rs 32.06 crore in FY24.

Rapido recently achieved unicorn status after securing $200 million in a Series E funding round led by WestBridge Capital. It has raised more than $500 million to date, according to TheKredible.

According to internal documents reviewed by Entrackr, Rapido has surpassed Ola to become the second-largest player in the ride-hailing market, following Uber, across bike, auto, and cab segments. The company claims that autorickshaws contribute 40% of its GMV, with bikes and cabs each contributing 30%. In terms of ride volume, bike taxis alone account for over 50% of total rides.

Ride hailing as a category, and bike taxis more recently, have done more than enough to demonstrate their use case. These are services that will genuinely be missed, and even cause a small disruption for many of their users, if they were to disappear. To think then that none of them have come close to profitability in India, is a real challenge. While the Ubers and Olas contend with a rash of drivers who would rather you cancel the ride and pay them directly to cut out the aggregator, we believe the issue has not assumed the same proportions for Rapido. It is something the firm will need to keep its focus on, even as it also needs to consider the costs of spreading itself too thin, despite the cash in hand. Two wheeler transport certainly is greener, and plays a much more vital service today, one could argue. One would hope the market evolves sufficiently here to make a case to incentivise both those who provide, and those who avail of these in some way. Until that, that last gap of 20% in margins seems like a tough nut for Rapido to crack.