Cartrade Tech Ltd

Simplifying India's Auto Journey

Dear Stakeholders,

As we embark on our journey as a listed public Company, it_is with great joy that I present to you CarTrade Tech's very first Annual Report, shedding light on our performance in FY22. This will provide our stakeholders a better insight into the operations and profitability of the Company, and we look forward to continuing this endeavour each year, with utmost levels of transparency.

Eleanor Roosevelt had once said,_"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams". When we kickstarted our journey in 2009, getting listed seemed like a far-fetched dream. Today, it is a matter of immense pride that we have become the first automotive digital marketplace to be listed in India. We began with the aim to create a lasting impact on the automotive_industry. Withfitime, effort, and an intricate understanding of our domain, we were able to successfully achieve this goal. Over the years, our_dream has evolved into building a connected automotive ecosystem that encompasses consumers, manufacturers, dealers, banks, and other stakeholders. While we have come a long way, we recognise there is still much more exciting work to do to fully achieve our vision.

We have always believed in attaining ‘profitable growth' while delivering a fantastic experience to our customers.

This belief has become a reality with our agile business model and the relentless hard work and commitment of the CarTrade Tech family. The pandemic presented unprecedented challenges over the last two years. Supply chain disruptions led to a shrinking market size and significant degrowth. Despite these challenges, we were able to smoothly navigate towards a robust financial performance, owing to the immense resilience displayed by our people. I_want to express my deepest gratitude to every member as their contributions have made it possible for us to consistently improve our customer experience. It is their passion and energy that keeps me inspired and fuels my purpose.

THE YEAR IN REVIEW

I am pleased to announce that in FY22, we recorded healthy and profitable growth, achieving our highest ever revenue of Rs358 crores, growing y-o-y at 28%. We also clocked the highest ever adjusted EBITDA of Rs97 crores, growing y-o-y at 25%. Our adjusted PAT stood at Rs56 crores.

Our revenue growth was matched by our EBITDA growth, reflecting the success of our business strategy. During the year, we also incurred a 19% y-o-y increase in our employee costs. This was mostly owing to salary increments and initiatives taken towards nurturing our employees.

Our marketing costs for this year were less than 7% of our revenue, a testament to the high brand affinity of our Company. We concentrated on growing our business across our consumer platforms–CarWale, CarTrade and BikeWale–garnering 3 crores average unique visitors every month, with over 86% of them being organically generated. Our commitment to improving our customers' experience has made our brand synonymous with trust, quality and reliability.

On the remarketing business side, our listings have increased to 12+ lakhs across 120 Automalls and online auctions. Our proprietary technology is built to cater to the large volumes of phygital auctions across all vehicle types, supply sources and geographies.

We will be committed to our agenda of creating profitable growth, and leveraging our agile and scalable business model. With an investable surplus of Rs1,000+ crores, we will continue to remain debt-free. Our profitability and surplus cash allow us to invest in widening our offerings and thereby serving our customers better.

CAPITALISING ON TRENDS TO CREATE A DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM

The pandemic brought many headwinds to the industry but it also accelerated digitalisation on a large scale, leading to an evolution in consumer dynamics. The entire vehicle buying journey has seen a structural shift, with an increasing number of buyers using digital platforms for pre-purchase research on pricing, comparisons, dealer discovery, financing options and other value-added services. The_pastfitwo years have also seen an increase infithe amount of sellers using online platforms for selling their vehicles via price discovery and identification of potential buyers. We at CarTrade Tech were well-poised to capitalise on the emerging opportunities brought about by the evolvingfitrends within the automobile space.

We have made considerable progress on our digital initiativefithat enables our customers to buy a vehicle through our ‘one-click' experience. To further our value proposition, we_have partnered with banks and other financial institutions to help our customers get loan approvals in a convenient manner. During the year, we also launched our CarWale abSure platform, which offers quality handpicked used cars, thoroughly vetted by CarWale. The_platform provides 4s promises–Sure, Secure, Safe, Smart. Thesefivehicles are sold on our online platforms, as well as through our 47 outlets across the country. We plan to expand to 120+_outlets by FY23.

LOOKING AHEAD

Backed by our robust business model, we are looking to expand our operations and increase our value proposition significantly in the coming years. As a continuously evolving auto platform, we are committed to meeting the needs of our consumers, dealers, and OEMs. We made considerable progress in achieving our Company's mission and will continue on this path in the future.

I am thankful to all our stakeholders who have extended their unwavering support to all our endeavours. I am truly grateful to our 3 crores monthly unique consumers who have shown faith in our brand. Their trust has helped us retain our #1 position in search popularity on Google Trends, much ahead of our key competitors. I also wish to extend my gratitude to our new vehicle and used vehicle_dealer partners, who will always remain integral buyers and sellers on our platform. Auto manufacturers, banks, and NBFCs are also key pillars within our ecosystem, enabling us to provide unique offerings to our customers. This is just the beginning and there is tremendous passion and belief at CarTrade Tech. I assure all our stakeholders that we will remain on track and consistently deliver on our promises, creating shared value for the longfiterm, focused on customer experience.