Insta Help weighs on Urban Company's bottom line in Q3; core biz remains profitable
Urban Company Q3 revenue jumped 32% helped by its Native business doubling. However, the firm posted a Rs 21 crore loss, weighed down by heavy investments in its new Insta Help vertical, despite the core business remaining profitable.
Home services marketplace Urban Company saw its December quarter revenue grow 32% on the back of Native RO range and home services even as its loss widen to Rs 21 crore due to heavy investments in the Insta Help vertical.
The Abhiraj Singh Bhal-led company posted Rs 382.6 crore in operating revenue as compared to Rs 288 crore it clocked a year ago. Sequentially, its operating revenue grew marginally from Rs 380 crore it clocked in the September quarter.
On a consolidated basis, its bottom line remained in red, with an after-tax loss of Rs 21 crore as compared to a profit of Rs 16 crore last year. Sequentially, the picture looked much better from a loss of Rs 59 crore in the previous quarter mainly on account of its investment in Insta Help businesses. Excluding the new vertical, the core business delivered an adjusted EBITDA profit of Rs 44 crore.
The total Net Transaction Value (NTV) on the platform surged to Rs 1081 crore from Rs 816 crore last year. Shares of the company fell 3.83% to Rs 124 apiece on NSE.
Its India's consumer services excluding Insta Help generated a revenue of Rs 265 crore, up 25%. Within that, service revenue which accounts for the larger share grew by 30% helped by festive demand.
The Native business, which sells a line of smart RO water purifiers, nearly doubled its revenue to Rs 79 crore, up from Rs 41 crore last year. However, its sales fell from the previous quarter from its high of Rs 75 crore. The segment witnessed sequential improvement in bottom line, but remained loss-making with an EBITDA loss of Rs 4 crore.
Its latest offering Insta Help offers quick housekeeping services, the segment competes with players like Snabbit and Pronto. The new vertical posted an adjusted EBITDA loss of Rs 61 crore in the quarter, much wider than Rs 44 crore it clocked in the September quarter as investments to build the category and competetion in the category weighed down on its bottom line.
"While absolute losses increased QoQ, we saw a reduction in the Adjusted EBITDA loss per order from Rs 760 per order in Q2 FY26 to Rs 381 per order in Q3 FY26. With improving AOV, service partner utilization, and micro-market densification, we expect the loss per order to reduce over time," shared the company in a shareholder letter.
The service has now been scaled to 1.61 million orders by qtr-end, bringing in Rs 28 crore in net transaction value, helped by strong customer adoption, retention and repeat rates continue to remain strong.