Urban Company Q1: Fastest growth in four years, but InstaHelp spending pushes firm into loss
Urban Company on Friday reported its fastest quarterly growth in nearly four years in the June quarter, driven by strong demand across its core home-services
Urban Company on Friday reported its fastest quarterly growth in nearly four years in the June quarter, driven by strong demand across its core home-services business. But heavier spending on its quick household-help venture, InstaHelp, and a deferred tax expense pushed the Gurugram-based company into a net loss. Consolidated revenue from operations rose 44% year-on-year to ₹528.3 crore in the quarter ended June (Q1FY27). The company reported a net loss of ₹92.1 crore, compared with a net profit of ₹6.9 crore a year earlier. The swing was primarily driven by a deferred tax expense of ₹8.4 crore, versus a deferred tax credit in the year-ago period. Excluding the tax impact, operating performance continued to improve as losses narrowed sequentially. Consolidated net transaction value (NTV)—the value of customer orders after adjusting for discounts, refunds and incentives—rose 42% to ₹1,465 crore, while quarterly orders surged 79% to 13.2 million, the strongest volume growth in the company's history. Urban Company also added more than 1.2 million new users during the quarter, the first time quarterly customer additions crossed the one-million mark. “This was one of the strongest quarters in Urban Company's history,” co-founder and chief executive Abhiraj Singh Bhal told analysts, citing broad-based growth across businesses and improving profitability in the core India services business.
Also Read | Urban Company bets on micro-market densification to grow 2x faster than industry Core business acceleration India's consumer services business remained the company's biggest growth engine. Revenue from the segment increased 31% year-on-year to ₹356 crore, while NTV grew 29% to ₹1,056 crore, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of accelerating growth. Adjusted Ebitda margin expanded to 6.9% of NTV, up 170 basis points from a year earlier, helped by stronger contribution margins and operating leverage. Bhal attributed the acceleration to better execution rather than higher marketing spend. Marketing expenditure in the India consumer services business remained largely flat from a year earlier even as customer additions accelerated, with better fulfilment rates, improving traffic and stronger conversion driving growth. “We will continue to focus on the basics—quality, supply sufficiency, fulfilment times and customer experience,” he told analysts, adding that over the long term, “there's no reason why this business cannot become significantly larger than it is today.” Smaller cities increasingly drove that growth. Tier-II markets outpaced metros during the quarter, while categories such as beauty gained traction following investments in service quality, training and product assortment. The company reiterated its long-term target of achieving 9-10% adjusted Ebitda margins for the core India services business.
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