Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Unicommerce eSolutions Limited, Quarter 4 and FY 2025 earnings conference call. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as of the date of this call. These statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Kapil Makhija, Managing Director and CEO of Unicommerce eSolutions Limited. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. Makhija.
Thanks so much. Hello and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. We are pleased to welcome everyone to the Quarter 4 and FY 2025 earnings call of Unicommerce eSolutions Limited. Joining me today is Anurag Mittal, our CFO, along with our Investor Relations advisor, Strategic Growth Advisors. Before we dive into the business update, I'd like to take a moment to share a personal milestone. Yesterday marks 10 years since I joined Unicommerce. It has been an incredible journey, and I'm truly grateful for the opportunity to witness and contribute to the company's and e-commerce ecosystem's growth over the past decade. With that, I'd like to start today's call by highlighting two significant strategic milestones we achieved in FY 2025. Firstly, the 100% acquisition of Shipway Technology Private Limited has been approved by our board and shareholders.
As you may recall, we had initially acquired approximately 48% stake in Shipway Technology Private Limited, a complementary SaaS company focused on e-commerce enablement, much like Unicommerce, on December 17, 2024. This acquisition aligns perfectly with our strategic vision to become a one-stop shop for e-commerce enablement. Secondly, I'm pleased to share that following a small existing EBITDA loss of INR 1.1 million incurred during the brief consolidation period in Q3 FY 2025, Shipway Technology Private Limited reached Adjusted EBITDA break-even in Quarter 4 FY 2025. This achievement has been possible in a short span of time by realizing meaningful synergies through joint stage efforts, enhanced cross-selling initiatives, and significant operational efficiencies across both direct and indirect costs. Specifically, we optimized direct costs by negotiating better rates with partners using group-level relationships and optimized indirect costs by consolidating certain corporate functions.
With this strategic acquisition, our product suite now covers the complete e-commerce lifecycle, comprising of, first, ConvertMate, an AI-enabled marketing automation platform aimed at enhancing conversions and sales performance on our client's website. Second, Uniware, our flagship platform for post-purchase supply chain management, trusted by thousands of e-commerce businesses to streamline inventory, order, and warehouse operations. Third, Shipway, our logistics platform, offering: one, courier aggregation for clients managing logistics across multiple courier providers via a single platform; and two, shipping automation for clients using their own commercial terms with logistics layers but requiring advanced technology to run daily logistics operations. Together, these platforms create a comprehensive solution covering the full e-commerce lifecycle, from driving demand to managing operations to handling delivery and return. We continue to see positive momentum across multiple product lines, with the growth in client facilities for Uniware, increase in shipments being processed by Shipway, etc.
Turning briefly to our financial results, we have delivered a strong financial performance in Quarter 4 and full FY 2025. Our consolidated revenue grew by 70.6% year-on-year in Quarter 4 FY 2025 to INR 452.7 million. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 98.1% to INR 88.8 million and PAT increased by 16.4% to INR 33.5 million. For the full fiscal year FY 2025, consolidated revenue grew by 30.1% year-on-year to INR 1,347.9 million. Adjusted EBITDA expanded by 56.3% to INR 283.9 million and PAT increased by 34.3% to INR 176.2 million. Moving now to industry dynamics, FY 2025 presented a challenging macroeconomic environment with muted growth across the e-commerce sector. This macro pressure impacted our net revenue retention, or NRR, for Uniware, which stood at 103%, slightly down from 108% in the previous year. This moderation in NRR closely mirrors broader industry trends.
However, we remain highly confident about the fundamental strength and long-term growth potential of India's e-commerce landscape. Despite these headwinds, we are proactively executing on multiple initiatives that are within our control to drive both growth and profitability. First is new client acquisition. We added more than 125 enterprise clients to Uniware in Quarter 4 FY 2025 alone, our highest-ever quarterly addition. These clients include prominent brands such as Tata 1mg, Duroflex, Reid & Taylor, and Ecova, along with innovative brands featured on Shark Tank India, such as PayBeauty and Kidzee Kisaan. Second is continued cross-selling initiatives. Our initial integration and cross-selling of Shipway and ConvertMate has shown encouraging progress in a short period of time. Notable cross-platform client expansions include prominent names such as Bagix and Zoop. Currently, our clients' overlap across Uniware and the Shipway-ConvertMate platform is around 10%.
Although modest, this overlap indicates significant headroom for growth through continued strategic cross-selling. Next is enhanced product offerings. We continue to innovate across our platform and adding enhancements to increase their revenue potential and introduce the following new use cases. We are enhancing Uniware to support new use cases such as improved B2B workflows tailored for bulk processing, a simplified order management system for clients with limited warehousing needs, and adding more quick commerce capabilities. We are integrated with all leading quick commerce players and have already processed more than 20 million items for quick commerce in FY 2025. For Shipway, we recently introduced capabilities for managing shipments under 500 grams, addressing the specific needs of sellers of lightweight products. For ConvertMate, we have expanded our communication channels by adding rich communication services, or RCS, alongside WhatsApp and SMS.
Lastly, UniReco, our payments reconciliation platform, continues to receive positive feedback, and we are on track for its commercial launch by the end of Q1 FY 2026. In addition, we continue to add AI-led enhancements across our platform to improve client experience. The full integration of Shipway and ConvertMate into our financial results has also contributed to our strong performance. Simultaneously, we are proactively managing our cost structure by investing in automation, AI-driven operational efficiency, and productivity initiatives, including scaling. We are also leveraging AI to drive product enhancement more efficiently, helping us keep our overall fixed cost under control. Looking ahead, our growth will be driven by multiple tailwinds. Firstly, India's significantly under-penetrated e-commerce market, which offers immense growth potential. Secondly, a total addressable market exceeding $1.15 billion, including substantial growth opportunities in courier aggregation via Shipway.
Thirdly, continued new client acquisitions across all platforms, along with cross-selling of our comprehensive product suite to existing and new clients, and new use cases and revenue streams introduced through enhancements of our platform, as well as continuing growth of our international business. To summarize, our ongoing investments, coupled with our end-to-end capabilities across ConvertMate, Uniware, and Shipway, a large combined client base of over 7,000 businesses, and consistent progress on cross-selling, strategically position us to reinforce our leadership in the e-commerce enablement stage and capture new growth opportunities. In less than one year since our listing on the stock market, we have materially increased our scale as a company from pre-listing scale of approximately INR 100 crore annualized revenue run rate to approximately INR 180 crore annualized run rate by the end of FY 2025.
As we head into FY 2026, we remain focused on disciplined execution, scaling revenue, enhancing efficiencies, and driving sustainable and profitable growth. Now, I'd like to invite Anurag Mittal, our CFO, to share our financial performance. Over to you, Anurag.
Thank you, Kapil. Good morning, everyone. We are pleased to report strong performance for Quarter 4 and FY 2025. Let me take you through the highlights of our consolidated financials. Our revenue for Quarter 4 FY 2025 grew by 70.6% year-on-year, reaching INR 452.7 million compared to INR 265.3 million in Quarter 4 FY 2024. Our Adjusted EBITDA increased to INR 88.8 million in Quarter 4 FY 2025, a 98.1% year-on-year growth compared to INR 44.8 million in Quarter 4 FY 2024. Adjusted EBITDA margins improved by 271 basis points year-on-year, rising to 19.6% in Quarter 4 FY 2025, from 16.9% in Quarter 4 FY 2024 due to benefits of operating usage.
Our PAT increased by 16.4% year-on-year, reaching INR 33.5 million in Quarter 4 FY 2025 compared to INR 28.8 million in Quarter 4 FY 2024. While PAT grew at a steady pace, it reflects the impact of amortization of intangible assets, worth INR 37.9 million for Quarter 4 FY 2025, as part of Shipway technology acquisition. This is a non-cash expense and has no impact on the strong operating performance of the company. Our EPS increased by 15.4% year-on-year, rising to INR 0.30 in Quarter 4 FY 2025, from INR 0.26 in Quarter 4 FY 2024. On a full year FY 2025, our revenue increased by 30.1% year-on-year to INR 1,347.9 million in FY 2025, compared to INR 1,035.8 million in FY 2024. Our Adjusted EBITDA grew by 56.3% year-on-year, reaching INR 283.9 million in FY 2025, compared to INR 181.6 million in FY 2024. Adjusted EBITDA margin improved by 353 basis points year-on-year, standing at 21.1% in FY 2025, compared to 17.5% in FY 2024.
Our PAT increased by 34.3% year-on-year, reaching INR 176.2 million in FY 2025, compared to INR 131.2 million in FY 2024. Our EPS increased by 33.9% year-on-year to INR 1.60 in FY 2025, compared to INR 1.19 in Quarter 4 FY 2024. Our cash and bank balance as of 31 March 2025 should have INR 353 million compared to INR 690.1 million as of March 31, 2024. The year-on-year decrease primarily reflects the cash outflow of approximately INR 684 million for the strategic acquisition of Shipway Technology Private Limited. Our net cash flow from operations significantly improved to INR 279.6 million in FY 2025, from INR 61.7 million in FY 2024. As Kapil highlighted, the synergies and cross-sell opportunities realized post-acquisition enabled Shipway to achieve Adjusted EBITDA breakeven in Quarter 4 FY 2025. The integration has progressed well in the short span of time, with meaningful synergies already realized and we look forward to future progress.
We have consistently delivered good performance year-on-year and remain confident about sustaining this momentum. With continued support operating usage in our Uniware business and incremental growth contributions from Shipway, Unicommerce is well positioned to drive profitable and a sustainable growth going ahead. With this, I would now like to open the floor for Q&A. Thank you.
Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchstone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets only while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. I may repeat, if you wish to ask a question, you may press star and one.
A reminder to all participants, if you wish to ask a question, you may press star and one. We have our first question from the line of Sumeet Jain from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity and good execution around Shipway cost management. Just to first, Kapil, wanted to ask around your organic growth in the standalone business. I mean, if I look at it, it has just grown at around 3.5%-4% YoY. Even if I look at, I think the shipment volumes were still fine, but I think the pricing has not been improving. Can you just throw some light as to what you are seeing on the ground?
Sure. Thanks, Sumeet.
I think we've clarified last time as well that our revenue growth typically lags transaction growth because a lot of transactions get consumed in the minimum guarantee that is given to our new clients, and they take some time to fulfill the quota of three transactions that's given. We've also highlighted that the overall macroeconomic environment is not very encouraging, where the overall e-commerce growth has been fairly muted. As a result of that, while we cannot really control how the market is shaping up, I think our focus is picking up our executing well on the initiatives that are well within our control. We continue to acquire a lot of clients. We have had our best client acquisition quarter to date with 125 enterprise clients in our standalone Uniware business.
We continue to add new product enhancements across B2B and good commerce, which are increasingly becoming an important pain point for a lot of our customers. We continue to leverage our existing base for doing cross-sell and upsell for Shipway.
Got it. That's helpful, Kapil. Just to remind, I think you have mentioned earlier that your pricing in terms of revenue per item will be around INR 1.2-INR 1.3. That still remains the case, or can we see some downward pressure in the future?
See, one of the things because I mentioned that the e-commerce ecosystem continues to be muted, one of the things that we had done in this quarter is to focus on onboarding high-potential enterprise clients. We have offered them lower MGs so that we can, where needed, to escalate adoption.
That is why there is some benefit that we earlier saw, where the effective rate of a new customer in the initial six to nine months used to be far higher because they did not utilize the full quota of transactions allocated to them under the MG . The idea was to get these emerging brands so that we can catch them in the early phase of their scaling journey so that we can benefit as an organization when we grow exponentially. Our quarter four FY 2025 rate is about 1.12, but for the full FY, it continues to be 1.2. It is a similar call-class range that you mentioned.
That will stay the course in future as well, right? I mean, that is what I just wanted to check. Yeah, yeah.
In fact, we had also mentioned about introduction of this price escalation clause in our new contract of FY 2025, which will start taking some effect in the current financial year. However, we are yet to ascertain the impact of this because we would be implementing it for the first time this year. I foresee it to be in the similar call-class going forward as well.
That's very encouraging to hear. I think you mentioned you saw an increase of 125 enterprise clients in Uniware. That's on a sequential basis or on a year-over-year basis you are mentioning?
125 clients were acquired only in Quarter 4 of FY 2025.
Okay. Because when I look at your factsheet, there is mention that you had 934 enterprise clients in Q3 and 953 in Quarter 4. Am I missing something here?
Yeah. If you look at our, these are new additions into the base. These are new client acquisitions. At the same time, because due to the overall market headwinds, we continue to see the long-tail customers either shutting down or going out of e-commerce. The net increase, we do not see much. In spite of that, we continue to deliver an NRR of 100% plus, which is net of churn. Our existing customer growth continues to be one of the pillars for our growth.
Got it. That is helpful, Kapil. Moving over to your top 10 client revenues, I mean, again, we have seen a YoY decline there. Obviously, the contribution is coming down maybe because of the broader growth in the business as well as Shipway acquisition.
Can you just also highlight how you are mining your top customers in terms of gaining more wallet share within and the cross-sell opportunity you mentioned, right, through Shipway? Are you actually able to do that with your top 10 clients?
Yeah. Sumeet, just to clarify, this top 10 contribution is for the standalone business. It does not include the Shipway revenue in this. Our focus, as we have been mentioning in our earlier calls as well, has been consistently over the last few years to diversify our revenue and reduce our dependence on the top 10 clients. You can see that we are roughly at about INR 950 enterprise clients. That has taken us nearly seven years to get to this base.
Now we are adding close to 350-400 clients every year, which means what took us seven years to achieve, we're now able to do it in two, two and a half years. The new clients that are getting added, their revenue contribution is helping us diversify the contribution of the top 10 customers. At the same time, on your question of mining the existing customers, as we talked about the strong motion of cross-sell that we have been able to put in place. If you recall, in the last earnings call, we had mentioned that our overlap was less than 5% when we started. Now, in a very short span of time, we've been able to increase the overlap to 10% plus. We continue to mine our existing customers with new products.
As UniReco also gets commercial launch by the end of this quarter, we hope to get more and more customers adopt that product as well, along with Shipway and Converter.
Got it. That's very helpful. One last question. I mean, any sort of guidance you are comfortable to share with in FY 2026 in terms of are you seeing any improvement in the overall e-commerce market, and within that, are you able to gain market share? Any comment would be helpful given that we do not get too much of industry data points out there.
Yeah. I think, Sumeet, FY 2026 has just started, so I think it will be too early for us to comment whether there is a turnaround or the growth will improve. Like I mentioned in the beginning part of the call, we are very positive about the long-term prospects of e-commerce growth.
We still stand by that. I think as a company, our growth will be driven by our ability to sustain market-plus-plus performance through driving 100%+ NRRs through existing clients, our continued momentum in new client acquisitions, and the expanding scale of new products, including Shipway, ConvertMate, and UniReco. As these platforms grow organically and benefit from the cross-sell synergies, we expect to maintain a positive growth trajectory for the company through FY 2026.
Got it. That is very helpful, and all the best to the team.
Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Arvind Arora from A Square Capital. Please go ahead. Hello. Good morning. Am I audible?
Morning. Yeah, you are good.
Congratulations, Kapil and Anurag, and your whole team for a good set of numbers. My question is mainly on the acquisition part.
Could you please give me a revenue breakup of Shipway and ConvertMate products and the billing model also? Is there any change in the billing model after the acquisition?
We are not publishing the product-level revenues for business-sensitivity reasons. As we had mentioned at the time of acquisition, courier aggregation is the largest part of the business. It contributes about 85% of the overall business. Our revenue from courier aggregation continues to be similar call-class.
Okay. Is there any change in the billing model since we are seeing it's a strategic acquisition and we see this as a one-stop solution? When we are having negotiations with the clients, are we offering a bundle of service all together, or how is it?
There is no fundamental change in the billing model. All our products are built on the transactions.
In Uniware, it's the items shipped from the warehouse. In Shipway, the shipments are going out, and in ConvertMate, it's the notification. Yes, as we now bundle these products together, there are some benefits that we pass on to our customers. It helps them, one, ensure that they're able to get an end-to-end offering under a single umbrella. Two, it helps them ensure that the overall total cost of ownership for the brand also goes down as they can get everything under a single umbrella.
Is it like a free-of-cost that we are passing on ConvertMate, or are we charging something?
Sorry, could you please repeat that question?
Is it like we are charging something for ConvertMate products, or is it a complementary service?
No, no. None of our products are complementary. We charge for all our products.
We ensure that if a bundle is offered, and today, when a sales team is approaching a new brand, they take the full booking of solutions to them, and the customers can pick and choose whether they want the end-to-end solution or a point solution. That flexibility is available to the brand.
Understood. Thank you. My second question is, I have something new that we are also planning to acquire more companies to enhance our footprint in one-stop solution. Is it like, can you please throw some light on this part? Are we planning for any acquisition, something like that?
Yes, see, our vision is to become a one-stop shop for e-commerce enablement. Our acquisition of Shipway was also in line with that vision.
We, as a company, continue to look at the white spaces that are existing today in the e-commerce enablement space, and we continue to identify solutions that we can offer to the market. Depending on the white space and the opportunity, there is a detailed internal assessment that's done to decide whether we need to build it internally or we look at a solution that's available in the market. I think at this point, I can only share that there is an active discussion that continues to happen in various potential white spaces that we keep exploring, and we continue to explore solutions that are available. Right now, it's at a very preliminary stage for me to be able to share any details. We will continue to fulfill our vision of becoming a one-stop shop of e-commerce enablement.
Understood. Okay. Sir, and the next question is on IPO expense. I can read it. We are still not billed to the investor. Any specific reason for that?
Sorry, question. We could not understand the question. Could you please repeat it?
There was an IPO expense that due to our first last year, we were charged to the client, like investor, who has sold their shares. Am I audible?
The IPO expenses, which we have incurred for the purpose of the IPO process, were solely borne by the selling shareholders. The total expense we have done for the IPO purpose is around INR 30 crore. The provision we have created is for those activities and those invoices, which have not been received. Whenever these are received, these will be charged to the selling shareholders and recovered from them.
Okay. Understood. Understood. Is it like it has been more than six months and we have not received the invoices from vendors? Is it true?
Yeah. Certain invoices have not been received from the vendor. That is the reason the provision was being changed in the financials. That is in the tune of INR 35 million.
Okay. Okay. Thank you, sir. That is all from my side.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Jelaj from Svan Investments. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Hi. Yes, Jelaj.
Yes. Hello. Are you good? Yes, you are audible. Yes. Yes. Thanks for the opportunity. Kapil, just wanted to understand a few things. On a standalone basis, the YoY numbers look satisfied at a 3% rate. And the consolidated numbers show the growth rate of almost 70%. The gap between is completely from Shipway. First of all, is that so?
What has exactly, so you partially alluded to it, that there is some sort of slowdown exactly in the e-commerce business. What exactly is happening? Could you throw a little more light on that part?
Yes. If you recall, the Uniware standalone business, the growth is driven by multiple factors. One is the market growth because our revenue is linked to the number of transactions. The second is new clients that we acquire. Third is the new product revenue that we come in. If you look at our revenue growth, last year, we had achieved 15% revenue growth, and this year, approximately 10% revenue growth. The decline of 5% is largely because of the market growth, which is reflected in our NRR, net revenue retention. Our NRR for FY 2024 was 108%, and NRR for FY 2025 is 103%. That has changed the 5% gap.
On your specific question of quarter four being muted, that's largely a result of the overall market not growing very strongly. As I mentioned before, that is honestly something that we cannot control. What's in our control is executing on and continuing to acquire new clients, and we had the best quarter till date in terms of new acquisitions. We continue to focus on enhancing our product to solve meaningful pain points in the ecosystem.
I appreciate that perspective of what was considered by us. Secondly, if I were to calculate the number of items being processed and taking it along with the revenue, ideally, going forward, we should look at this purely from a standalone basis only and not on the consolidated numbers.
Basically, the revenue per transaction, the number of 1.12 you mentioned for this quarter, ideally, that should be taken forward only on the standalone numbers.
Yes, that's correct. The standalone business is backed on the number of transactions. Similarly, the other product lines are also backed on their respective metrics, which we published as part of our investor on this presentation.
Got it. Maybe I would have missed it. Could you talk a little about what would be the revenue model for Shipway then? How should we understand that?
The Shipway revenue is linked to the number of, and the Shipway Technology Private Limited business has got two product lines. One is Shipway, which has courier aggregation and shipping automation. Second is ConvertMate, which is an AI-led marketing automation platform.
Courier aggregation is the largest part of the business that contributes in the ballpark range of 85% of the overall revenue. The courier aggregation business operates in a large market of nearly INR 4,000 crore and where the revenue is linked to the number of shipments being processed on the platform. The ballpark revenue realization is about INR 70-INR 80 per shipment. As we continue to publish the number of shipments on a quarterly basis, you can ascertain the revenue trajectory or the revenue per shipment trajectory based on that.
Understood. Understood. Thanks for that. I see there is a jump in the other expenses this quarter. What would be the reason for that? What frequency and year-on-year basis? Hello?
Sorry, I was on mute. The other expenses, the consolidated financials have increased because of the Shipway expenses being also added in the overall expenses.
That is the reason the expenses have been increased. In fact, if you see the numbers, the overall amount of INR 150 million pertaining to the Shipway other expenses have been consolidated in FY 2025 post-acquisition. That was actually not there in the financials of FY 2024. That is largely the reason for the increase in the other expenses during the year.
Got it. So it's fair to assume that the other expenses would be in the similar range going forward?
Yes. Yes.
Got it. Got it. Understood. Thanks a lot and best of luck.
One point I want to clarify here is that consolidation started happening from 17th of December 2025. So next quarter, quarter one FY 2026 will not be comparable with quarter one FY 2025. Other expenses will be in the same ballpark.
Got it. Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Keshav.
Thanks for the opportunity and congrats on the set of numbers. I'm quite new to this company. I definitely feel like this company, the return margins are strong compared to the other players. Your other expenses appear relatively low. Could you provide some clarity on the card?
Sorry, the voice is coming very muffled. You're not able to hear you clearly.
Am I audible now?
Yeah. It's much better. Thank you.
I can see that your company maintains a strong EBITDA margin compared to the peers, and your other expenses appear relatively low. Could you please provide some clarity on this? Are these efficiencies primarily driven by low marketing spend or other cost optimization?
Yeah.
The Uniware business, which is a flagship platform, has significant operating leverage, where a large portion of our revenue grows those who are bottom line. Besides driving a consistent revenue growth through new acquisitions and growth of our existing clients, we as a management team have tried to keep costs in control because if you look at Uniware, which is a flagship platform, a lot of investments have gone in FY 2021 and FY 2022 in building the platform. Now the platform is largely stable. We do not foresee any incremental investments into the business besides the BAU investments because of the evolving e-commerce landscape. For example, as Quick Commerce became an important contributor in certain categories, we have built enhancements to our Quick Commerce offering. Since we do not see a lot of investments going into the core platform, that is why the business inherently provides a significant operating leverage.
At the same time, we have been able to leverage AI to drive our business efficiently in terms of improved productivity enhancements, training our team and the customers. We also leverage AI to do product enhancements to be able to do these product enhancements at a much faster pace and with a much leaner team than we used to do before. I think a combination of these, we are not underinvesting in sales and marketing. As you can see, we've had our best quarter till date in last quarter, where we acquired 125 enterprise clients in Uniware. Hence, a lot of these efficiencies are coming through one, stabilization of the platform, two, a constant focus in being able to leverage AI to drive productivity enhancements within the team.
Got it, sir. Sir, another part, is the Shipway business directly comparable to Shiprocket, or is it slightly different?
See, as I mentioned, the courier aggregation forms a large portion of the revenue. There are multiple players in the space within Shipway companies, and Shiprocket is one of those players.
Thank you. That answers my question. Thank you so much.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Sonal Minhaz from Tyson Capital Advisors. Please go ahead.
Hi, this is Sonal Minhaz. I hope I'm audible.
Yes, sir, audible.
Okay. Thanks for taking my question. I'm Raghav Kapil in one set of numbers. I wanted to understand, I see your top 10 customer precentage share falling. Maybe it is a function of you adding more customers at the bottom of the pyramid.
Just wanted to understand, in the last one year, has there been a churn in the top 10 customers? I just consider FY 2025, that's one. If yes, if you could share some subjective feedback on why they have left, and if at all, if there's anything to be said.
Sure. See, Uniware as a platform, and I'm assuming the question is about the standalone business. Uniware as a platform. Sure. Uniware as a platform is extremely sticky. Once a brand adopts Uniware platform, it is essentially a marriage for life. It effectively becomes an ERP for their e-commerce operations, and you rarely see a brand replacing their ERP. You can see our average lifetime continues to increase every year. That is why very rarely have we seen a large customer turning from our platform.
The answer to the question about churn in FY 2025 amongst top 10 customers, the answer is no. We've had churn in the top 10 customers in the past, but the main reason for churn has largely been that customers going out of business because e-commerce is a volatile industry. That's actually the bulk of the reason for churn, where the customer either goes out of business, as in shutting down, or they go out of e-commerce. That's mainly the reason, and we don't see much of that happening amongst our top customers.
Got it, Kapil. A follow-up question there, Kapil. Just wanted to understand, I think you explained this well in the last discussions as well, that there is not much of a build required in terms of the Uniware platform, and hence there may be some operating leverage that you would see in terms of people cost there as well. Traditionally, have you seen such similar businesses, such SaaS models not investing in their platform or people or tech over a one or two-year period? Because there may be competition coming from the other side. Just want to understand, is that a real sustainable thing, or that's like a small tactical edge that you might see for one year, and then you have to reinvest in tech, people, resources going further over the next three, four years?
Sure.
As I mentioned before, at no point of time are we underinvesting in the business, neither in terms of sales and marketing nor in terms of product development. We continue to ship out a lot of upgrades to our product. I mentioned that in 2021 and 2022, it was a major overhaul of the platform to make sure that we are ready for the acceleration that we've seen during the pandemic. We continue to ship out upgrades to our platform. For example, I talked about Uniware upgrades as Uniware is becoming a meaningful channel for many categories. We have seen brands becoming omnichannel, and hence we are seeing requirements of managing their B2B part of the business, which is, let's say, their shipments to General Trade, Modern Trade, or shipments to, let's say, their own source fulfillment.
We continue to upgrade our platform to be able to offer this. Innovation is at the core of our business. If we do not innovate as a company, I think the market is fairly competitive, and there will be new competition that's coming. That is why today we are leveraging AI to make sure that we are able to do things a lot more efficiently than we did in the past. We are able to ship out many of these upgrades in a much shorter span of time. Hence, we do not foresee as much team size or as much team cost that we had probably incurred in the early part of our journey as the product platform has become stable now.
Got it. Got it. Thanks, Kapil. Thanks.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Sahil Doshi from Thinqwise. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, and congratulations to the team for the successful Shipway integration. Thanks, Sahil. Yeah. Just a couple of my questions relates to what we just wanted to understand. We have amortized INR 3.8 crore related to Shipway this quarter. Could you please talk about the entire goodwill which has come in? How should we think about it going forward, and what could be the recurring impairment/amortization related to this?
Sahil, could you elaborate? What do you mean by what kind of business has come into the amortization?
Sure. I meant the INR 3.8 crore worth of amortization which you've taken related to the acquisition. Incrementally, what could we think about? Because I think there is goodwill of INR 118 crore on our book right now. How should we think about this going forward?
Sahil, the increasing taxation and amortization in quarter four FY 2025 is largely because of the amortization of intangible assets recognized as a part of our Shipway Technology Private Limited acquisition. These are primarily the non-cash accounting adjustments, and we will continue to do so over the period of the next three years. This is actually in line with ethical accounting standards. As you know, when we do the accounting of these acquisitions, particularly the business acquisitions, we have to split the overall value of acquisitions into different assets acquired from the acquired company. That is the reason we have capitalized the value of overall investment into different intangibles as well as the goodwill in the books of accounts. Those assets which have been capitalized will be amortized over a period of three years on a consistent basis. Okay.
If I understand correctly, the INR 118 crore goodwill will be amortized over three years. Is that the right way to read this?
No, no, no. The business will not get amortized. If the value of investments, particularly in fact, near about INR 40 crore of the assets has been recognized as an intangible in the consolidated financials, this INR 40 crore will get amortized over a period of three years in the financials.
Perfect. This explains. Just if I see the derived number of the Shipway business, total expense for this quarter is around INR 18 crore, excluding the employee costs. Is there a one-time cost related to acquisition built up here, or is this the steady-state total expense? How should we think about these cost line items for Shipway going forward?
Sahil, in fact, the overall expenses actually include the operational expenses of Shipway Technology in this quarter four FY 2025. Lastly, our other expenses are inconsistent with the previous quarter itself. Overall, in the future also, these numbers will be in the similar ranges going forward.
Okay. When you say similar, just wanted to understand, where is the Uniware for operating leverage? Meaning the idea was to understand that.
Sure. Sahil, the large part of operating leverage will come from the Uniware business, which is largely stable. Shipway as a business and as a product line is on its growth trajectory. While there are possibilities of us generating profits in the business, one of the strategic calls that we've taken is that we'll continue to reinvest profits for growth in Shipway and ConvertWay. This business will largely operate at a breakeven.
A large part of our profit growth and a large part of our profit growth will come from Uniware because of the inherent operating leverage in the business.
Understood. Just lastly on the core business, Kapil, one of the previous questions you did mention that the pricing element is not coming in because of the minimum guarantee. Could you quantify that? Because since the time of listing, we've really never seen the pricing momentum actually come through. How long are these durations of these minimum guarantee contracts? Shouldn't this be a regular feature? Every quarter you'll add new clients, and they will all be under minimum guarantee. The overall pricing will always remain under pressure. Is that the right way to read through?
Sahil, I think, like I mentioned, that what has taken us seven plus years to build in terms of the enterprise client base, we are now able to do in two-two and a half years. As we continue to be aggressive in the new client acquisition, because I think we've just scratched the surface as far as e-commerce enablement is concerned, there are so many businesses that are yet to get online, that are yet to get on the dropship model, where they will feel the need of a software provider like ours. We do not foresee the client acquisitions slowing down at any point of time.
As we continue to acquire more and more clients, it is the inherent nature of the business where the new clients take about six to nine months for them to fully utilize the minimum quota that's allotted to them as part of the MG. As this motion continues, I think we will continue to see a similar trajectory on the pricing, because our intent as a business is to drive consistent growth in revenues and profits, which will come from both growth of our existing clients as well as new clients that we continue to acquire besides adding new products, generating new revenue lines for us.
Okay. Understood. Just to understand, we are seeing the core is operational level. Also, on the e-commerce side, we are hearing clear talk about going to an inventory-led model. Do we see the entire TAM is reducing the holds for us? Could I drop parts on this?
Sahil, I could not hear the first part of the question. I'll address the TAM reducing or increasing, but could you please repeat the first part of the question?
The first part was we are seeing the e-commerce transactions, the pace of growth reduced. Second, we are seeing a shift to e-commerce, where hence we are talking about going to an inventory-led model. My question was, our operating TAM, is it getting lesser or diminishing day by day, or how do we think about this?
Sure. Let me address the second part of the question. Dropship model is a fairly recent phenomenon which started to pick up during the pandemic.
If you look at pre-pandemic, dropship model as a percentage of overall e-commerce business was in early double digits, and today it's nearly half of the market. It's expected to grow even further, and that's the trend we are seeing. I'm not sure on this is what report are you saying that the inventory model is increasing. In fact, if you look at Quick Commerce, it started out as an inventory-led model as how e-commerce started a decade ago as an inventory-led model. Today we see leading Quick Commerce platforms now launching multiple models as how the horizontal marketplaces have launched. We are in fact seeing the Quick Commerce businesses also getting into the dropship model and operating with multiple models, which means that there is increased complexity for brands to be able to not only manage multiple channels but also manage multiple variants of each channel.
Hence the need of our technology solution like us is increasing every quarter as the complexity in the ecosystem is increasing. On the first part of the question, sure, the e-commerce market growth was muted in this year, but as I mentioned, we are fundamentally aligned to the long-term prospects of the e-commerce growth. I think we fundamentally believe that e-commerce is fairly underpenetrated in the market. As more and more customers in the country continue to get comfortable with shopping online, we will see a higher penetration of e-commerce going forward. The long-term prospects of e-commerce still continue to be intact. Yes, in the short term, we do see some headwinds currently.
Got it. Thank you so much, Kapil. Thank you so much. Best wishes.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Rajvi Poradia from Sohum Asset Managers.
Please go ahead. Hello. Sir? Am I audible?
Yes, you are audible.
Yeah. Hi. So I basically was looking to the P&L of your company, and there were a few adjustments that were made in the P&L such as capitalization of employee costs, and there were some bonus reversals. So assuming last time when you had capitalized the employee costs, I think that was in 2014, and very recently you have done that for your product development team. So I'm just assuming if I reverse those, I do not see the patch growth as much as it is shown. Can you guide us as to how can we going forward, how can we account for those expenses into FY 2026?
Rajvi, to your question, the capitalization that we undertook was for the new products. A large portion of our revenues came from our existing products.
The patch growth that you see is a true reflection of the business. As our products are gaining maturity, we plan to fully expense these new products going forward, which has been consistent with our accounting philosophy since the company started. For example, UniReco, we had capitalized during the year as we were building the product. We are on track to launch it by the end of quarter one FY 2026. From this quarter itself, we'll be fully expensing the UniReco product. This is the same philosophy we follow all across. On your question of employee expenses, you would see that this year there are no reversals, and the capitalized expense is also lower. These are now steady-state employee cost numbers that you see because of the efficiencies that we have built into the system. One, we have realigned our investments, which is the business needs.
Plus, we are now leveraging AI to a great degree to ensure that we can drive productivity enhancements within the team.
Rajvi, in addition to what Kapil also explained, I also want to reiterate that this manpower cost relates to the product development having capitalized under intangible asset development near about INR 6.3 crore for FY 2025, which includes INR 0.4 crore, INR 40 lakh in quarter four FY 2025. As of now, all our revenue comes from our existing products, as Kapil also mentioned. Hence, for the purpose of Adjusted EBITDA, only cost related to the current products are considered, and the capitalized development expenses do not distort the operating profitability. Once the new products are launched commercially, related operating costs will begin reflecting in the profit and loss account, which may have a marginal impact on the margins but not significant.
Sure. One more point, Rajvi, on the capitalization I want to add is that during FY 2025, the company capitalized development for UniShip and UniReco. UniShip has since been transferred to Shipway given its strategic alignment with Shipway's business, particularly to enhance its enterprise-grade offerings. Shipway will continue investing in UniShip to take it to its terminal development stage, and hence there may be some capitalization related to that. As I mentioned earlier.
in FY 2026, sir?
Yeah, that's correct.
In FY 2026. Okay, okay. I was just going through the absolute amount for the employee cost. For FY 2024, it was INR 612 million, and FY 2025, INR 592 million. Even if I exclude those one-time adjustments that you had made, it was INR 607 million. On absolute basis also, you actually see the employee cost going down irrespective of the adjustments that you made?
Yes. Yes, Rajvi, we see the employee cost going down, and we see that the numbers that you see in quarter four, we will continue to be in similar ballpark of that going forward as well.
Okay, sir. That was helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Pershil Zaveri from Crown Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Hello. Good morning, sir. Firstly, congratulations on a great set of numbers, sir. Hope I'm audible.
Yeah, you're audible. Thanks for your waiting.
Yeah, yeah. Hi, sir. So sir, I just wanted to I understand a lot of my questions have been answered. So just still wanted to ask a bit about how do we see FY 2026 planning.
When we say that we have a net annual recurring revenue of INR 181 million, is that a fair assumption that FY 2026 our growth should be higher than that only because that's what we've done in Quarter 4 in terms of revenue? Is that the right way to look at it, sir?
Sorry, your voice is now coming a bit muffled. If I understood your question correctly, you're saying that we had a revenue run rate of INR 180 crore, so we will be able to deliver revenue higher than that. Is that correct?
Yeah, yeah. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
Yes, that's correct. We enter FY 2026 at a revenue run rate of approximately INR 180 crore. Our hope is to deliver a revenue higher than that in FY 2026.
Perfect. Perfect, sir. I just wanted to harp a bit about the cost.
As I think we are saying here, our employee and other expenses should remain at the current level that we saw in FY, sorry, in Q4, right? That would be a new run rate, right?
Yes, sir. Run rate would be in the similar ballpark.
Okay. Okay. Fair enough. The heightened depreciation, we were saying that there is a INR 40 crore amortization that we are going to do over three years, right? That would mean we have a significantly higher depreciation going forward, right?
That will be amortized over a period of three years, 36 months.
Yeah, even if it is over 36 months, sir, I think INR 40 crore means that yearly it will be around INR 13 crore that we are going to amortize, right? Any other, because our depreciation last FY 2024 was around INR 2.4 crore.
This year it's around INR 7.2 crore. In addition to this, we'll have another INR 13 crore, right?
Yeah, that's true. That is as per the acoustic standard regulations only.
No, no. Fair enough. We can't control that. I just wanted to know that because that will, even it being a non-cash item, it will impact PAT overall, right, sir? We also wanted to know maybe next year onwards, just our key metrics for our growth, we should be focusing on our shipments and transactions, right, because that would be giving us the perfect metric of how the business is doing rather than seeing PAT, right?
Exactly. Our revenue growth is driven by the number of transactions or number of shipments. That's a good metric for you to track to see the performance of the business.
Okay. Okay. Just last question from my end.
We do not see any, as we said, our per transaction cost, I think, is around INR 1.12 that you said for Q4. That rate will be, that can be constant for FY 2026. We do not see any downward trend in that rate, right, sir?
Yeah. Over the years, we have seen this number to be in a similar ballpark range. I think our hope is that it will continue to be in a similar ballpark range going forward as well.
Okay. Okay. Fair enough, sir. Yeah, that's it from my side, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraints, that would be the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, everyone, for joining the call today. We hope we have been able to address your queries. Should you have any further queries or clarifications, please feel free to reach out to us or Strategic Growth Advisors or Investor Relations advisors. Thank you and have a good day.
Thank you. On behalf of Unicommerce eSolutions Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your line.