Flipkart FY18: revenue increased 50% but losses rose fivefold

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Feb 26, 2019

Flipkart Group’s revenue increased by 50 percent to Rs 30,164 crore ($4.53 billion) in the 2018 financial year but losses also increased fivefold, not counting finance costs.

For the 2018 financial year, Flipkart Group reported its financials for the last time as an independent company as, following its acquisition by Walmart last summer, it now reports them together with the US business. The 2018 financial year, which ended in March last year, saw Flipkart’s revenue increase by a sizeable 50 percent but, as losses were also high, profit did not see a similar rise, as reported by TNN using data sourced from Paper.vc.

Flipkart’s losses increased by five times during the 2018 financial year to reach Rs 5,964 crore. However, the business bore a sizeable amount of finance costs and, if these are taken into account, the losses increased by close to ten times and totalled Rs 40,937 crore in the 2018 financial year up from Rs 4,309 crore in the 2017 financial year. 

Although finance costs are not the same as losses, it does reduce the value of the company. Other areas where Flipkart spent heavily included on employees, advertising, and logistics, which the business invested in heavily in last year, especially to prepare for the festive sale seasons. The 2018 financial year also saw Flipkart gain funding from Japan’s SoftBank and China’s Tencent among other businesses.