Urban Company

“I want to underscore that we believe we are firmly on track to achieve our adjusted EBITDA breakeven goal by Q3 FY28, and we are very confident, now more than ever before, of achieving the ₹1,000 crores adjusted EBITDA goal that we set out for FY31.”

“the current balance sheet is more than sufficient — and if it was not, we would have changed the short- to medium-term targets, but those remain unchanged.”

“And if I'm saying that out on the earnings call, then obviously internally, our assumptions would be much, much higher.”

“As we've said earlier, our break-even target for InstaHelp is as far out as FY31, so we're in no rush.”

“Yes, so Manish, I think why we remain confident on achieving the Q3 FY28 break-even goal at a consolidated level is a function of two things.”

“India Consumer Services, our core business, grew 26.3% year-on-year in the current quarter, Q2.”

“Coming to our international markets, we grew at 66.2% year-on-year. UAE is a very large market for us, and despite the war, it has continued to grow very well, and all concerns around growth in that market are now well and truly behind us.”

“Native recorded another strong quarter of growth, with 35.4% year-on-year growth. This was despite the festive sales moving completely into Q3.”

“Orders grew 63% quarter-on-quarter to reach 6.23 million, and in the micro-markets of InstaHelp, which run alongside our core business, about 45% of all new users to the platform now come through InstaHelp.”

“our own focus on Tier 2 markets in the past few quarters has increased — we've started to double down, and we will continue to do that for the coming years ahead.”

“Consolidated NTV has grown by almost 40% for three straight quarters, well ahead of our pre-listing trend.”

“For our largest categories, in our top 8 cities, penetration continues to be well below 10%, and our Tier 2 cities are now growing much faster and becoming a strong second engine for growth.”

“With densification, what we are able to do is deliver our services faster under UC Instant, and increasingly now, consumers are able to see, in the top 7–8 cities, services available within the hour, and very often within 30 minutes or so.”

“On average spend, I think there's nothing material to talk about. It's a combination of some mix change, a little bit of the festive season moving further along this year, and, in pockets, as I mentioned, we've passed on the benefits of densification to consumers.”

“We do almost 10 times more air conditioner servicing, repair and installation orders compared to water purifiers, and the category is also perhaps 10 times larger in terms of TAM.”

“Adjusted EBITDA, excluding InstaHelp, was at ₹30 crores this quarter, up 213% year-on-year, and ₹119 crores for the past three quarters, up 175% year-on-year.”

“During Q2 FY27, India Consumer Services saw a margin improvement of 110 basis points year-on-year to reach 3.5%.”

“the unit economics improved with density, and loss per order fell 19% quarter-on-quarter, from ₹346 to ₹279.”

“And finally, we've stepped up on customer marketing as well, and that would have been visible in the India Core P&L that we've drawn out.”

“In fact, we've mentioned in the letter as well that R&D expenses in Native are today the bulk of the EBITDA losses, so from that, one can derive where the underlying profitability is already tracking.”

“We closed the quarter with ₹1,901 crores of cash and treasury investments on our balance sheet, and a core business that generated ₹119 crores of adjusted EBITDA over the past three quarters.”

“I think today, for instance, I wouldn't say that we enjoy a lot of flexibility from the current balance sheet standpoint, given where Insta's losses are, and the other requirements. So, at this point in time, the current balance sheet allows us to execute precisely on the plan that we have laid out for ourselves in an organic fashion.”

“The proposed raise of up to ₹2,500 crores is about flexibility. It lets us invest with conviction across each of these business lines, cement our leadership in InstaHelp, and pursue inorganic opportunities selectively, without trading off one for the other.”

“the purpose of this fundraise is predominantly to ensure that we have strategic flexibility over the next 5 to 10 years, and that we have a strong balance sheet to execute on our vision, which is to build a much, much larger company than we are today.”

“So we believe that the additional capital is not necessarily to fund the losses in InstaHelp, or for the short-term needs that the other businesses might have, but more from a longer-term perspective — to provide strategic cushion, and definitely to look at any interesting inorganic opportunities”

“I think the incremental capital allows us to be more aggressive, to see newer opportunities that may come along, to look at inorganic acquisitions more closely, and, in the worst-case scenario, if the TAM, for instance, is significantly larger than we are envisaging, and the competitive intensity dramatically increases, it gives us the option to play on the front foot, without being defensive.”

“See, we are very clear that this capital is being raised for strategic flexibility, and predominantly for growth.”

“We believe we are on track to launching an air conditioner device that will be very, very innovative, and much like all our other products in Native, will bring a breath of fresh air to the category.”

“We expect the next year or two to be more about learning, and mostly from a channel standpoint as well — I think we will limit it largely to our app.”

“There is nothing imminent, but we will always be open and look out for the right opportunities, and if there is an attractive opportunity at the right valuation that we believe can be meaningfully additive to the company and create long-term shareholder value, we are very much open to doing that.”

“Now, given that, we've explicitly said in the past as well that we don't look to enter any new countries. For India Core, if at all we do an M&A, it would be to add on categories that we don't operate in today, where we feel that the decision of build versus buy may be tilting in favour of buying, provided things are accretive from a valuation standpoint.”

“So, I'd never say never, but it's highly unlikely.”

“It's easy to add bodies in this business — it's hard to retain the right supply and maintain a very low partner churn.”

“While the current numbers, and the current NOV's declining trajectory, may raise some concerns amongst the investor and analyst community, we have enough evidence internally — and if we didn't, we wouldn't be this aggressive.”

“And once pricing fully corrects, we will see a downward correction in the orders as well — that's not something that's hard to imagine.”

“On a consolidated basis, net transaction value grew 39.1% year-on-year to reach ₹1,432.3 crores, and revenue from operations grew 41.4% year-on-year to reach ₹537.3 crores.”

“Our orders delivered more than doubled year-on-year to reach 15.1 million, and annual transacting users grew 34.5% to reach almost 10 million.”

“Adjusted EBITDA loss recorded was ₹144 crores, but this reflected a ₹174 crore”

“So right now, we don't charge any premium, and in the future, we're open — it's not a decision that we've taken right now, it'll be a function of many considerations and factors. It's already something that has been rolled out in both UAE and Singapore as well.”