Food delivery startup Box8 clocks 79% jump in FY18 revenue

Poncho Hospitality Pvt. Ltd, which offers on-demand food delivery services under the Box8 brand, reported a 79% surge in operating revenue for the year through March 2018.

Revenue from operations climbed to Rs 81.47 crore from Rs 45.53 crore in 2016-17, according to Mumbai-based Box8’s filings with the Registrar of Companies.

Net loss expanded to Rs 18.1 crore from Rs 12.45 crore due to a tax adjustment of Rs 6.84 crore for the prior period. Pre-tax loss shrank to Rs 11.26 crore from Rs 17.91 crore.

The filings show also that the company’s total expenditure rose about 45% to Rs 92.35 crore from 63.78 crore.

Box8 didn’t respond to an email seeking comment on its financial performance till the time of publishing this report.

Founded in 2012 by IIT graduates Amit Raj and Anshul Gupta, Box8 is a full-stack online food delivery player where it controls every aspect of its service including preparation and delivery of the dishes. Its menu consists of over 100 Indian dishes including meals, biryanis, wraps, sandwiches and salads.

The company was launched as a Mexican-only quick service restaurant chain but it later tweaked its model to serve Indian dishes.

It last raised $7.5 million (Rs 50 crore) in Series B funding from IIFL Seed Ventures Fund and existing investor Mayfield in 2016. Last year, it secured Rs 7 crore in venture debt funding from Trifecta Capital as part of the Series B round.

The company is operational in Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru and claims to serve around 14,000 meals every day through a network of 65 stores.

Box8’s comparable rivals in the cloud kitchen and food delivery space have also been making losses while increasing sales.

For 2017-18, Bengaluru-based Foodvista India Pvt. Ltd, which operates cloud kitchen and food delivery platform FreshMenu, reported operating revenue grew 72% to Rs 122.3 crore from Rs 70.9 crore the year before. However, net loss widened to Rs 43.8 crore from Rs 42.3 crore.

Rebel Foods, an internet kitchen platform that owns and operates a number of brands including Faasos and Behrouz Biryani, saw an increase in its revenue by 67% in 2017-18 while narrowing its loss for the second straight year. Net sales of Pune-based Rebel Foods jumped to Rs 149 crore in 2017-18 from Rs 89 crore in the previous year. However, net loss shrank to Rs 74 crore from Rs 82 crore.