CashKaro expects profitability in 2 yrs, user base to grow 100 mn in 3 yrs

Ratan Tata-backed startup Cashkaro expects profitability in the next two years and to grow its user base by four-fold to 100 million in the next three years, a senior company official said on Friday.

While speaking to PTI on the sidelines of the Digital Acceleration and Transformation Expo (DATE), CashKaro and EarnKaro co-founder Swati Bhargava said the company has enough revenue to report profitability anytime now, but it is ploughing back money into marketing campaigns to grow its user base.

When asked about the timeline that CashKaro expects to report profitability, Bhargava said, "We are looking at two years because, after two years, we see we can do away with some of our marketing campaigns".

CashKaro has thus far raised over Rs 255 crore from prominent investors like Kalaari Capital, Ratan Tata, Korea Investment Partners and Affle Global Pte Ltd.

Bhargava said that at present the company sees no immediate requirement for further fundraising till the time it becomes profitable.

"We can report profit whenever we want. If you look at our FY23 number, we are doing Rs 255 crore in revenue with losses of around Rs 10 crore. We are comfortable with this because we believe that there is too much marketing to be done. We could have reported profit last year but we want to put this money back in growing our base and generate awareness," she said.

CashKaro provides cashback to its users when they shop for products from its partner platforms like Amazon, Ajio, Flipkart, and Myntra, among others.

"We are paid by our partner merchants. We deduct some margin and pass the rest of the money to our users. Therefore, we have a profitable business model. We are investing in growing our user base. At present, we have 25 million users which has grown from 16 million last year.

"With the increase in e-commerce business, we should be able to make 100 million in the next three years," Bhargava said.

She pointed out that CashKaro is building teams across verticals, but growth in headcount may not be in proportion to the business growth of the company.

Talking about growth in companies' valuation, she said that some of the investors have up to 20 times the return on their investments.

"In the last couple of rounds we have 8-9 times growth (in valuation)," Bhargava said.