Gurugram-based unicorn Cars24 saw slower growth in the year ended March 31 as demand for used cars eased and the company cut costs significantly.

In fiscal 2023, the startup's operating profit grew by 7.7 percent year-on-year to Rs. 5,535 crore. Compared to this, the company's revenue growth in FY22 was 87 percent to Rs. 5,136.5 billion.

The company's net loss in FY23 was 467.7 billion rupees compared to 248.1 billion in FY22. However, for the year ending March 31, 2022, it reported a one-time gain of Rs. 845 crore due to technology transfer to the Singapore unit.

Excluding the one-time profit, the company's operating loss in FY22 was 1,093.1 million rubles.

Gajendra Jangid, cofounder and chief marketing officer, Cars24 says, “During the year, the focus was on the rationalization of costs and as a guide, I can say that we continued the path of sustainable growth also in the 24th fiscal year. The idea is to build healthily and reduce loss margins.”

From a cash burn peak of about $20 million in 2021, the company cut that to about $8 million earlier this year, and Jangid adds.

Without sharing the current tax bill, he added that in the first half of the 24th financial year, the company's excellence increased by 30 percent in April-September of the 23rd financial year.

The company, backed by SoftBank and Alpha Wave Global, also scaled back its expansion plans both domestically and internationally during the year. Apart from India, Cars24 operates in the United Arab Emirates, Thailand, and Australia. Earlier this year, it closed its operations in Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.

Jangid says, “The Company expanded its calibrated consumer-to-business (C2B) business, increasing its presence to 150 cities, up from about 100 earlier this year. In terms of business-to-consumer (B2C), it stopped expanding in newer cities.”