KKR-backed Livspace, an omnichannel home interior provider, saw its losses jump by over 55% to Rs 645 crore in FY22 from Rs 416 crore in FY21, dragged by higher employee benefit spends and an overall increase in expenditure.
The startup’s total expenses amounted to Rs 1,215 crore, about 55% higher from Rs 784 crore it spent in FY21. Employee benefit expenses — its single-largest cost centre in the year — totalled Rs 414 crore in the year, around 49% more than Rs 278 crore the company spent in FY21. Livspace’s marketing spends jumped nearly 4X to Rs 164 crore from Rs 42 crore in FY21. The company also incurred higher legal fees, paid more brokerage and saw input costs going up in the financial year, regulatory filings showed.
Meanwhile, Livspace saw its revenue increase to Rs 570 crore, about 55% higher from Rs 368 crore it had registered in FY21.
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“In FY22, our earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) was impacted because of continued investments to strengthen our supply chain. Our core India business is now operationally profitable and we are focused on driving company-wide sustainable profitability in the next 12-18 months,” Ankit Shah, chief strategy officer, Livspace, told FE.
“Even though the sector faced strong headwinds by Covid in FY22, our business has seen a growth of 300% over the past two years and we are looking at carrying forward this momentum into FY23. Given the strength of our balance sheet, we also announced the $100 million fund (for acquisitions) last October towards accelerating our growth and taking advantage of inorganic opportunities to unlock more value for all our stakeholders,” he added.
So far, Livspace has raised $450 million from Bessemer Venture Partners, TPG, retail giant IKEA and several others and was valued at $1.2 billion, according to Tracxn. It competes with HomeLane, Reliance’s Urban Ladder and others.