Cab aggregation unicorn Ola’s electric mobility arm, Ola Electric reported a four-fold rise in its net loss for the financial year ended March 2022.
According to annual financial statements filed with Registrar of Companies, the company’s net loss rose to Rs 784.1 crore from Rs 199.2 crore recorded in the preceding year. Its revenue for FY22 came in at Rs 373.4 crore.
To be sure, the SoftBank-backed firm remained in pre-revenue stage before FY22, as it was gearing up to begin bookings of its electric two-wheelers. It reported a revenue of Rs 0.9 crore in FY21.
In the financial year 2022, Ola Electric made more than 90% revenue by retailing scooters while the rest came from battery swapping and subscription services.
In FY22, its revenue from scooters sale and battery swapping and subscription services stood at Rs 348.2 crore and Rs 25.2 crore respectively.
The Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola Electric is currently the market leader in India’s electric two-wheeler segment with a 27% market share. It pits against the likes of Ather Energy, TVS Motor Company and Hero MotoCorp.
The company last raised around $200 million from Tekne Private Ventures, Alpine Opportunity Fund and Edelweiss at a valuation of $5 billion in January 2022. It is currently in discussions to raise $300-$350 million in a funding round led by Singapore’s Temasek.
Coming to expenses, Ola Electric’s total costs for the fiscal year under review grew more than four-fold to Rs 1,240.4 crore from Rs 305.4 crore year-on-year.
The sharp rise in expenses comes on the back of new elements like the cost of procuring goods for the manufacturing of scooters. Ola Electric’s procurement costs accounted for nearly half of its total expense at Rs 641.1 crore in FY22. It didn’t accrue this expense in FY21 as it didn’t begin the manufacturing of the electric two-wheelers.
Meanwhile, the company spent nearly 43% more money on its employees in FY22 at Rs 282.5 crore, up from Rs 197.3 crore in the financial year before. Its other major expense included marketing cost, which stood at Rs 49.4 crore in FY22, rising more than 3x against Rs 15.9 crore in the fiscal before.
