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Pune-headquartered Ntex Transportation Services Limited, which owns and operates business-to-business (B2B) unicorn ElasticRun, reported losses of Rs 618.82 crore for FY 23, up 72% from Rs 358.59 crore in FY22 on a consolidated basis.

Revenue from operations rose by nearly 25% to Rs 4,754.86 crore from the year-before period, according to filings made with the Registrar of Companies.  

It reported a 40% increase in expense due to freight, transportation and servicing costs, as well as depreciation in financial assets, clubbed under other expenses. 

Backed by the likes of SoftBank, Prosus Ventures, and Goldman Sachs, ElasticRun also wrote off its investment in Etyacol Technologies, which owns and operates peer-to-peer lending NBFC CashKumar. ElasticRun came in as a strategic investor to purchase 25% stock in CashKumar in 2021 to facilitate access to credit for merchants it works with. 

Founded in 2016 by Sandeep Deshpande, Shitiz Bansal, and Saurabh Nigam, ElasticRun offers distribution and delivery of FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) to corner store merchants and kiranas, primarily in rural India, serving over 1 lakh villages across India. The company earns revenues from the sale of goods as well as rendering logistics and technology services. It also holds the inventory of the traded goods in its warehouse facilities.  

Going ahead, ElasticRun also plans on expanding into private-label products in the FMCG space, which commands higher margins. Net margins on distribution of FMCG range from 3% to 6% depending on the category, according to industry experts. For private labels, the margins could go up as much as 40%. 

“Further, management is consistently exploring opportunities for the company’s expansion including but not limited to the logistics, distribution sector as well as exploring opportunities related to the launch of its own private label products via contract manufacturing route,” it said in the annual earnings. 

ElasticRun, which has raised $461 million to date, was last valued at $1.5 billion as of February 2022, according to market research platform Tracxn. The company competes with the likes of Udaan and DealShare, as well as larger incumbents like Reliance-backed JioMart.