Travel aggregator platform Cleartrip nearly doubled its operating revenue to Rs 97 crore as higher expenses strained its bottom line.
The Flipkart-owned platform posted a 96% increase in revenue from operation to Rs 97.2 crore in FY24 from Rs 49.4 crore in the previous year, according to filings sourced from the Registrar of Companies.
Its improvements in topline came with higher expenses which increased by 26% to Rs 988 crore from Rs 780 crore in the previous year mainly pushed by employee benefit expenses and interest payments.
Unlike its profitable peers MakeMyTrip, Yatra, and EaseMyTrip, Cleartrip posted a loss of Rs 809 crore, 18% wider than its previous loss of Rs 684 crore.
Cleartrip earned Rs 369 crore from its services which include air ticketing, hotel booking and bus bookings. Along with that, it earned Rs 240 crore in commission and incentives. However, it provided discounts and cashbacks of Rs 524 crore leaving it with a topline of just Rs 97 crore.
Walmart and Google-backed Flipkart acquired the struggling travel platform in a distress sale in April 2021 for $40 million. Cleartrip was acquired in a cash-cum-stock deal after which it would operate as a separate brand.
In September this year, Prahlad Krishnamurthi stepped down as the Chief Business Officer of Cleartrip to take up a role as the chief executive at NextBuy, a solution offered by Biznogo.
Before that, Jupiter Money’s Chief of Product Anuj Rathi joined the travel platform in May this year.
