One of India's top modern delivery and logistics systems, Shadowfax, reduced its losses by 90% in FY24 and produced a solid financial performance. At the same time, the company's operating revenue increased by more than 33% year over year, and it earned a profit on EBITDA with Rs 23 crore for the fiscal year that ended in March 2024.
According to its annual financial documents submitted to the Registrar of Companies, the Flipkart-backed company's operating revenue increased to Rs 1,884.8 crore in the most recent fiscal year from Rs 1,415 crore in FY23.
Furthermore, as per Shadowfax, it offers 3PL (third party logistics) services to D2C and e-commerce companies in 18,000 pin codes and 2,500 cities nationwide. Shadowfax's sole source of income is the sale of logistics and delivery services.
Abhishek Bansal, the company's co-founder and CEO, credited the company's steady growth in FY24 to its emphasis on value-added services including same-day delivery, reverse logistics, and fast commerce provided via its Flash service.
Shadowfax has stayed in the B2C market, but the majority of logistics firms have decided to concentrate on a particular service and go into the B2B market. Since we are the only 3PL providing these services, quick commerce offers us an advantage," cited Abhishek Bansal, Co-founder and CEO at Shadowfax told a credible source over the phone.
In FY24, the company's total revenue was Rs 1,896.4 crore, which included Rs 11.6 crore from non-operating activities.
The majority of expenses were related to transportation and distribution (delivery partners), which increased 24.7% to Rs 966.2 crore in FY24. This item accounts for 50.63% of all expenditures incurred in the previous fiscal year. While expenses associated with lost shipments climbed by 39.7% to Rs 94.6 crore, vehicle operating costs increased by 35.8% to Rs 394.5 crore.
While other expenditures added an additional Rs 241.5 crore, employee benefit expenses decreased slightly to Rs 211.5 crore, or 11.08% of total spending. In FY24, the Bengaluru-based company's overall expenses increased by 21.9% to Rs 1,908.3 crore.
The company's net loss decreased by 92% to Rs 11.8 crore by the end of FY24 from Rs 142.6 crore in FY23. In the previous fiscal year, Shadowfax also generated a positive EBITDA of Rs 23 crore. It had an EBITDA margin of 1.21% and a ROCE of -1.06%.
In the previous fiscal year, Shadowfax spent Rs 1.01 per unit to generate one rupee of operational income. From Rs 320.8 crore in FY23 to Rs 619.5 crore in FY24, the company's assets nearly doubled. At the end of FY24, it had Rs 102.8 crore in cash and bank balance.
Shadowfax acquired a USD 100 million Series E financing headed by TPG NewQuest shortly before the conclusion of FY24. In order to enable Shadowfax to provide bike-taxi services during peak hours, Uber recently teamed with Shadowfax to link its two-wheeler fleet with UberMoto.
The Bansal-led business is reportedly preparing to make its Initial Public Offering (IPO) public. In addition, another player, Ecom Express, has obtained SEBI approval for its Initial Public Offering (IPO), and it will join industry peers Delhivery and Blackbuck, which are already listed on the stock exchange.
Based on its success in comparison to its rivals, Shadowfax has become India's fastest-growing logistics company. Ecom Express reported stable sales of Rs 2,607 crore in FY24, indicating a small 2.3% growth. In the meantime, Delhivery, a publicly traded rival, reported a 12.7% increase in revenue over the previous fiscal year.
