Mumbai, 28 October 2024: ElasticRun, a leading B2B e-commerce platform, today announced its financial results for fiscal year 2024; reporting significant progress toward profitability, reducing losses by almost half to INR 350 crore. This improvement underscores the company’s strategic focus on profitability, driven by targeted initiatives and operational efficiencies.
Strategic Pivot to High-Margin Regional Brands
A key driver behind the improved financial performance was ElasticRun’s pivot to supporting high-margin regional brands. This shift has transformed the company’s sales mix, with over 90% of sales now coming from high-margin products. The enhanced product portfolio, coupled with a threefold increase in take rates compared to the previous year’s assortment, has significantly boosted ElasticRun’s gross margins, even as Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) declined in FY24.
Sandeep Deshmukh, Co-Founder & CEO of ElasticRun said “We strategically realigned our platform to focus on high-margin regional brands, and this shift has worked exceptionally well for us. Our platform now serves as a powerful launchpad for these brands, enabling them to expand far beyond their home market and scale nationally.”
ElasticRun’s private label business also saw strong growth, now contributing nearly 20% of the company’s total sales. The introduction of private label products has allowed the company to address assortment gaps in key markets, further boosting revenue and profitability.
Logistics Businesses
In the logistics sector, ElasticRun solidified its leadership position as the dominant delivery partner for India’s top e-commerce players. The company is making its foray into quick commerce through a multi-pronged approach, collaborating with existing players and developing its own white-label quick commerce network. This initiative aims to help direct-to-consumer (D2C) and other commerce players offer faster and reliable delivery options to their customers. With quick commerce poised to drive significant growth, the company anticipates it to be a critical building block of its logistics business.
Tech as a Service: Scaling the Platform
ElasticRun’s technology platform, which has powered over 2 billion shipments, was introduced as a SaaS offering in FY24. In just a few quarters, the platform has onboarded more than several large enterprise customers, including some of the biggest names in e- commerce and D2C sectors. This new revenue stream highlights the stability and maturity of ElasticRun’s technology infrastructure.
Commenting on the company’s strong financial position, Ankit Gadia, CFO of ElasticRun, said “Our focus on capital efficiency, coupled with disciplined execution, has put us on a strong footing. We continue to maintain one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry with significant cash reserves and a prudent capital allocation strategy. We continue to invest in our LogisTech and B2B rural ecom business to achieve profitable, sustainable and competitive growth.”
About ElasticRun
ElasticRun is a B2B eCommerce Platform, enabling businesses to reach small Kirana stores in the deep rural parts of India. With over 1 lakh stores and 150+ stations, it connects to 150+ brands with the stores in the remotest part of the country. ElasticRun also helps eCommerce companies reach customers in far-flung areas through its network of rural Kirana stores. It brings banks and financial institutions closer to a set of new underserved SME customers from its rural Kirana network. Additionally, ElasticRun offers SaaS, credit, marketing, analytics, and crowdsourced logistics solutions to enhance business operations. ElasticRun was founded by Sandeep Deshmukh, Shitiz Bansal and Saurabh Nigam in 2016. The company’s existing investors include Norwest Venture partners, Softbank, Goldman Sachs, Prosus Ventures (formerly Naspers Ventures), Kalaari Capital and Avataar Ventures.
