The Bengaluru-based company’s losses widened to Rs 439 crore in FY22 from a loss of Rs 166 crore in FY21 as the firm hired more employees and spent more on marketing post-Covid-19.
“During the year the company increased its marketing campaigns and expanded employee strength to fuel the growth post the Covid year. This led to an increase in total expenditure from Rs 254 crore to Rs 596 crore,” the company said.
Employee benefit costs rose 73% to Rs 106 crore from Rs 61 crore in FY21. Advertisement and promotion expenses jumped five times to Rs 176 crore from Rs 33 crore in FY21.
Rapido primarily earns money by charging commissions from rides.
Post-pandemic, it has expanded into the three-wheeler category, challenging the duopoly of SoftBank-backed Ola and Uber.
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The company also has a business-to-business (B2B) vertical where it routes drivers for food and grocery delivery companies like Swiggy and Zomato. In April last year, Rapido received $180 million in funding from Swiggy and TVS Motor.The company has of late faced scrutiny from state governments over a lack of licenses to aggregate both bike and auto taxis, as taxis require yellow number plates to operate legally in the country.
Bike owners in India typically have regular white number plates. These do not permit a driver to ferry passengers in return for cash.
The Bombay High Court on January 20 rejected Rapido’s appeal against a Maharashtra government order denying it a licence to operate bike taxis in the state.
Rapido has been in the legal crosshairs related to its bike taxi services in several states, as taxis require yellow number plates to operate legally in the country.