Kinetic Green’s Losses Spurt 11X in FY24 As Revenue Dips 3%

Electric vehicle manufacturer Kinetic Green faced significant financial strain in FY24, with losses increasing 11X due to rising expenses in advertising and employee benefits. Meanwhile, the Greater Pacific Capital-backed company’s revenue declined by 3% year-on-year.

Kinetic Green’s revenue from operations decreased to Rs 291 crore in FY24 from Rs 301 crore in FY23, its consolidated financial statement from the Registrar of Companies (RoC) shows.

Kinetic Green manufactures electric vehicles, including two and three-wheelers such as electric scooters, rickshaws, cycles, and buggies.

Collections from the sale of electric vehicles were the sole source of revenue for Kinetic Green for the fiscal year ending March 2024.

The cost of procurement remains the largest cost center for Kinetic Green, forming 62% of the overall expenditure. To the tune of scale, this cost dipped by 5.4% to Rs 229 crore in FY24 from Rs 242 crore in FY23.

The firm’s advertising cost spiked 8.2X to Rs 58 crore while its employee benefits saw a surge of 52.4% during the previous fiscal. Its finance, transportation, legal, travel, and other overheads increased the total expenditure by 19% to Rs 369 crore in FY24 from Rs 310 crore in FY23.

The 8X surge in advertising and a sharp rise in employee benefits led Kinetic Green to widen its losses by 11X Rs 77 crore in FY24, compared to Rs 7 crore in FY23. Its EBITDA margins stood at -20.55% while the company spent Rs 1.27 to earn a rupee of operating revenue in FY24.

By the end of FY24, the Pune-based firm reported current assets worth Rs 169 crore including Rs 2.3 crore of cash and bank balance 

Kinetic Green has raised a total of $27 million of funding to date, including a $25 million round from Greater Pacific Capital. According to the startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, Greater Pacific Capital is the largest external stakeholder with 5.6%. Its co-founders Sulajia Firodia Motwani and Ritesh Ramesh Mantri cumulatively hold 91.7% of the company.

A high stakeholding and deep experience  in the two and three wheeler industry would indicate a long term strategic plan at Kinetic Green, which is a reason quality backing has also been received from investors. But with further investment raises definitely on the cards, the founders will be keenly looking at ways to strengthen both performance and valuations. That is obviously not apparent in the Fy24 numbers for the young firm. The electric two wheeler space remains strong, and Fy25 will probably give us a better sense of the growth, although with barely a 1% share of the market, the firm barely makes it to the top 10 list. However, unlike many other two wheeler startups that might struggle in a segment with some very strong top 3 players, the firm has its founder legacy to build on, and will remain on the radar for market watchers in the coming quarters as well. 

By Arrangement with Entrackr