Online pharmacy startup PharmEasy has recorded a 14.7 per cent decline in its consolidated revenue from operations to Rs 5,664 crore in the financial year 2023-24 from Rs 6,643 crore in FY23. The total income dropped to Rs 5,758 crore in FY24 from Rs 6,699 crore in FY23, according to the results published by PharmEasy’s parent company API Holdings on its website. The startup competes with Tata’s 1MG, Netmeds, Apollo Pharmacy, Trumeds, and marketplaces such as Flipkart Health+ and Amazon Pharmacy.
PharmEasy’s losses, however, narrowed by 51 per cent to Rs 2,533 crore in FY24 from Rs 5,211 crore in FY23 on the back of a massive 79 per cent reduction in goodwill impairment charges to Rs 582 crore in the last fiscal from Rs 2,825 crore in FY23.
Goodwill impairment charges occur when a company realizes that the value of goodwill—an asset it recorded after buying another business earlier—is lower than originally thought.
The company also managed to cut its expenses by 19 per cent to Rs 7,254 crore from Rs 8,974 crore during the said period, with the purchase of stock-in-trade declining to Rs 4,572 crore in FY24 from Rs 5,512 crore in FY23 and employee benefit expense dropping to Rs 699 crore from Rs 1,283 crore in FY23.
Finance costs, however, were up from Rs 665 crore in FY23 to Rs 728 crore in FY24.
API Holdings, which was valued at $5.6 billion in 2021, saw a 92 per cent valuation markdown to $458 million, as per SEC filings, with asset manager Janus Henderson and investor in PharmEasy marking down its investment by 91.8 per cent. In April this year, the company had a 90 per cent haircut in its valuation after it secured around $216 million funding led by Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG) and existing investors.
PharmEasy had also defaulted on a Rs 3,500 crore loan from Goldman Sachs in June last year and even postponed its listing plan in August 2022 after filing DRHP in November 2021.
Amid growing competition in the quick commerce space, which aims to deliver medicines in 10 minutes, PharmEasy had recently come together with Swiggy Instamart for the latter to fulfil medicine delivery in hyperlocal format. Apollo 24/7 by Apollo Hospitals has also started medicine delivery within 20 minutes in select cities.