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Urban Company reports revenue growth but remains in the red in December quarter

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MUMBAI: Freshly listed and barely four months into life on Dalal Street, Urban Company, the home services marketplace reported a mixed set of numbers for the quarter ended December 31, 2025, blending brisk top-line growth with stubborn losses and a strategic pivot that signals where its next mop-and-bucket moment may lie.

Revenue from operations rose to Rs 382.68 crore in the December quarter, up sharply from Rs 287.92 crore a year earlier and marginally ahead of the Rs 380.03 crore clocked in the September quarter. Including other income of Rs 36.10 crore, total income stood at Rs 418.78 crore.

Yet expenses continued to outpace earnings. Total costs climbed to Rs 432.83 crore during the quarter, driven by employee benefits of Rs 114.20 crore and other expenses amounting to Rs 232.26 crore. The result was a consolidated loss before tax of Rs 21.05 crore, compared with a profit of Rs 16.38 crore in the same quarter last year.

For the nine months ended December 31, 2025, the story was similar but larger in scale. Revenue from operations reached Rs 1,129.98 crore, a jump from Rs 846.02 crore in the corresponding period a year ago. Total income, including other income of Rs 99.95 crore, stood at Rs 1,229.93 crore. The company reported a consolidated loss of Rs 73.65 crore for the nine-month period, reversing a profit of Rs 242.60 crore in the previous year, largely due to higher costs, new business investments and the absence of deferred tax credits booked earlier.

Digging into segments offers clues about what is working and what is still being scrubbed clean. India consumer services, excluding InstaHelp, remained the mainstay, generating Rs 264.54 crore in quarterly revenue and Rs 798.15 crore over nine months. The Native brand, which sells Urban Company’s own products, delivered Rs 61.77 crore in quarterly revenue and Rs 196.73 crore for the nine months, though it continued to post losses at the segment level.

International business contributed Rs 49.58 crore in the December quarter, while InstaHelp, the company’s rapid daily cleaning service, added Rs 6.79 crore but remained deep in the red, with a quarterly segment loss of Rs 60.91 crore.

The company’s margins were further dented by a warehouse fire in Bhiwandi, Maharashtra, which destroyed inventory worth Rs 9.11 crore during the nine-month period. The stock was insured and a claim has been filed, but the loss still left its mark on the books.

Against this backdrop, Urban Company’s board approved a manufacturing and supply agreement with Amber Enterprises India Limited to produce products under its Native brand. The deal runs until December 2029 and includes an exclusive arrangement for the term plus two additional years, subject to volume commitments. No upfront consideration has been paid, but the agreement is aimed squarely at tightening the supply chain and meeting rising demand.

The board also cleared a series of employee stock option moves, including a top-up to the 2015 Esop scheme, a shift to a trust-based structure and the closure of the 2022 Esop plan. Paid-up equity capital stood at Rs 144.61 crore at the end of December, reflecting the conversion of preference shares ahead of the company’s listing in September 2025.

Urban Company’s listing expenses of Rs 17.10 crore in the quarter served as a reminder that going public is rarely cheap, especially for a company still investing heavily in growth. Finance costs remained modest at Rs 3.11 crore for the quarter, but employee-related costs continued to rise as the platform scales operations across India and overseas.

Auditors Price Waterhouse & Co Chartered Accountants LLP issued an unmodified review opinion on both standalone and consolidated results, noting that some subsidiaries and trusts were not individually reviewed but were not material to the group.

For now, Urban Company sits at an awkward but familiar stage for consumer tech firms. Revenues are rising, brands are being built and supply chains are being secured, but profitability remains a work in progress. Whether its Native push and operational tightening can turn those losses into something shinier will be one clean-up job investors will be watching closely.

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Delhivery chairman Deepak Kapoor, independent director Saugata Gupta quit board

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Gurugram: Delhivery’s boardroom is being reset. Deepak Kapoor, chairman and independent director, has resigned with effect from April 1 as part of a planned board reconstitution, the logistics company said in an exchange filing. Saugata Gupta, managing director and chief executive of FMCG major Marico and an independent director on Delhivery’s board, has also stepped down.

Kapoor exits after an eight-year stint that included steering the company through its 2022 stock-market debut, a period that saw Delhivery transform from a venture-backed upstart into one of India’s most visible logistics platforms. Gupta, who joined the board in 2021, departs alongside him, marking a simultaneous clearing of two senior independent seats.

“Deepak and Saugata have been instrumental in our process of recognising the need for and enabling the reconstitution of the board of directors in line with our ambitious next phase of growth,” said Sahil Barua, managing director and chief executive, Delhivery. The statement frames the exits less as departures and more as deliberate succession, a boardroom shuffle timed to the company’s evolving scale and strategy.

The resignations arrive amid broader governance recalibration. In 2025, Delhivery appointed Emcure Pharmaceuticals whole-time director Namita Thapar, PB Fintech founder and chairman Yashish Dahiya, and IIM Bangalore faculty member Padmini Srinivasan as independent directors, signalling a tilt towards consumer, fintech and academic expertise at the board level.

Kapoor’s tenure spanned Delhivery’s most defining years, rapid network expansion, public listing and the push towards profitability in a bruising logistics market. Gupta’s presence brought FMCG and brand-scale perspective during a period when ecommerce volumes and last-mile delivery economics were being rewritten.

The twin exits, effective from the new financial year, underscore a familiar corporate rhythm: founders consolidate, veterans rotate out, and fresh voices are ushered in to script the next chapter. In India’s hyper-competitive logistics race, even the boardroom does not stand still.

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Brnd.me enters Europe as haircare brands power global expansion

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Bengaluru:  Brnd.me, the global consumer brands company formerly known as Mensa Brands, has entered the European market following strong momentum across the Middle East, the United States and Canada.

The company has launched across the UK, Germany, France and Spain, with plans to expand into Italy, the Netherlands and Poland over the next year. The push is being led by its haircare and aromatherapy brands, Botanic Hearth and Majestic Pure, marking Brnd.me’s first structured expansion into Europe.

The European beauty market represents a total addressable opportunity of over $4 billion across haircare and aromatherapy, supported by high digital adoption and demand for accessible, performance-led products.

Brnd.me’s hair care and aromatherapy business currently operates at an annual run rate of around $6 million, with Botanic Hearth and Majestic Pure delivering roughly 10 per cent month-on-month growth, driven by expansion and rising repeat demand.

To support regional growth, the company has appointed a general manager based in Germany and is evaluating investments in warehousing and local team expansion.

Early traction has been strong. Within weeks of launch, Botanic Hearth’s rosemary hair oil ranked among the top five hair oils in Germany, signalling strong consumer pull in a competitive market.

Brnd.me founder and chief executive officer Ananth Narayanan, said Europe represents the next phase of the company’s international strategy. He added that the European business is expected to scale to a $10 million annual run rate by the end of 2026, with long-term ambitions to reach $60 million over the next six years.

The company’s Europe strategy centres on digital-first distribution, repeat demand and TikTok-led discovery, alongside direct-to-consumer expansion to strengthen brand equity and margins.

The move also aligns with growing EU–India trade engagement, supporting long-term sourcing and cross-border supply chains.

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TechnoSport taps quick commerce with launch on Slikk’s 60-minute platform

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NATIONAL: TechnoSport has launched on Slikk, the ultra-fast fashion app offering 60-minute delivery, as the activewear brand accelerates its push into quick commerce to capture Gen Z and young millennial shoppers.

The debut brings more than 150 high-performance styles to Slikk’s platform, with an average selling price of Rs 450, expanding TechnoSport’s reach across over 80 pin codes.

The partnership follows strong momentum for TechnoSport across Q-commerce channels, where the brand has recorded around 60 per cent volume growth over the past six months. The company expects quick commerce to contribute nearly 20 per cent of its revenue in the coming years as hyperlocal delivery gains scale.

Slikk, which recently raised $3.2 million in seed funding led by Lightspeed, has rapidly gained popularity among youth consumers seeking speed, trend relevance and impulse-led shopping experiences.

Activewear remains one of Slikk’s fastest-growing categories, driven by shoppers increasingly treating fitness-led fashion as an everyday essential. The platform has reported a 30-fold year-on-year increase in items sold, reflecting rising demand for performance wear that blends comfort with style.

TechnoSport chief executive officer Puspen Maity, said the collaboration would help the brand engage more closely with young consumers whose fashion choices are shaped by instant needs and lifestyle aspirations. He added that rapid delivery bridges the gap between intent and purchase, allowing shoppers to access activewear exactly when they want it.

 

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