Despite e-commerce slowdown, PAT doubled last year: Unicommerce promoter Kunal Bahl

Kuna; Bahl, CEO Snapdeal

E-commerce enablement platform Unicommerce clocked a 15 percent growth in revenue in FY24 and Profit After Tax (PAT) doubled to Rs 13 crores despite a significant slowdown in the Indian market, a top executive said.

Kunal Bahl, the founder of Snapdeal, which acquired Unicommerce nearly a decade ago, said there is "considerable headroom for growth" based on India’s order shipment data.

“Last year, arguably, was one of the slowest years for e-commerce growth as is visible from e-commerce shipment growth and other parameters…Despite that, Unicommerce grew faster than the market and grew our revenues by 15%,” Bahl told Moneycontrol, ahead of Unicommerce’ public issue, which opens on August 6.

The Unicommerce anchor book will open on August 5 and the IPO will open for subscription on August 6 and close on August 8. It is set to list on August 13th, the third tech firm to go public this month after Ola Electric and FirstCry.

Snapdeal and SoftBank-backed Unicommerce reported FY24 revenue at Rs 103.5 crores, up from Rs 90 crores in FY23. The company reported a net profit of Rs 13 crores on FY24 which doubled to Rs 6.4 crores in FY23. The company’s FY23 revenue almost doubled since FY22.

Speaking about the timing of going public, Bahl said that there is a sense of stability and path to growth within Unicommerce, which led to the decision to go for an IPO.

“The company has clear revenue and profit leadership in the space it operates in, and has significant market share, we felt that the time was right because it does open a few avenues for us and allow us to diversify our shareholder base,” Bahl said.

Gurugram-based Unicommerce was founded in 2012 and acquired by Snapdeal in 2015. The firm enables end-to-end management of e-commerce operations for D2C brands, retail companies, and other online sellers through its comprehensive suite of SaaS-based technology products.

Expanding from e-commerce to quick commerce

To expand the customer base, Unicommerce has started to tap into the quick commerce segment.

“We have already integrated with all the quick commerce channels. So any brand which is selling on horizontal marketplaces, vertical marketplaces, as well as quick commerce channels can use Unicommerce as a platform to manage order and inventory on different platforms,” said Kapil Makhija, CEO of Unicommerce to Moneycontrol.

Details of Unicommerce’s IPO

The company has lowered the issue size of the offer for sale from 2.98 crore shares to 2.56 crore shares. There is no fresh issue component in the IPO.

Snapdeal is looking to offload 94.38 lakh shares in the offer for sale, while SoftBank is looking to sell 1.61 crore shares.

B2 Capital Partners, a fund run by promoters and Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, has scrapped its plan to sell 22.1 lakh shares in the IPO.

Unicommerce’s promoter Snapdeal owns 34.9 percent shareholding in the company and SoftBank holds 29 percent. The company’s investor B2 Capital Partners own 9.91 percent shareholding.