Ratan Tata-backed hyperlocal services startup Urban Company, earlier known as UrbanClap, on Tuesday, announced FY20 operating revenues growing 103 per cent to Rs 216 crore from Rs 106 crore in FY19. The unaudited financial results were based on the relatively new accounting norm – IND-AS to which the company moved in the last financial year. The net booking value of all transactions on the platform went up 138 per cent from Rs 385 crore in FY19 to Rs 918 crore in FY20. However, the company didn’t disclose its annual losses.
“We are not talking about losses as of now. We changed to the new accounting standard and so our auditors want to go through the entire audit process once and be more confident before updating it. It will be completed in the next few months,” Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Co-founder, Urban Company told Financial Express Online.
However, Coronavirus did put a small dent on the company’s annual growth with negligible business in the second half of March. “We would have grown by at least 10 per cent more to 115-120 per cent from 103 per cent,” Bhal said. Nonetheless, he is confident that the result of impact for FY21 will be in a positive direction once Covid begins to settle down as more people would prefer at-home services. The company had reported Rs 72 crore in operating losses in FY19 up from Rs 57 crore in its unaudited financial results.
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Urban Company is also looking to add new categories to diversify revenue streams to cope up with the Covid impact. “We are experimenting with categories like extra-curricular activities for kids. We launched disinfection and sanitization services for homes, commercial setups, cars etc. We are launching something in the home healthcare space for elderly. The whole effort to launch these services is in a way trying to diversify revenue streams,” he said.
The haircut at home service, which was launched before Covid, has gained significant traction post the pandemic. Consequently, the company is doubling down on the category to grow user base and business. “Haircut at home will going to be a big focus area and we are seeing a lot of traction there. We are doing online training of barbers and doing remote onboarding as well.” Beauty and wellness categories had around 55 per cent of revenues in FY20 even though they remain largely suspended under lockdown. On the other hand, home repair and maintenance services have resumed.
Urban Company had last raised $75 million in Series E round in August last year from Tiger Global and others and so have “good war chest for next few years.” The company is expecting to have visibility on profitability only next year after factoring in the overall post-Covid situation.
