Crypto unicorn CoinSwitch has slipped into losses of over Rs 450 crore in financial year 2022 after a profitable fiscal 2021.
The crypto firm, which is now expanding to become a full-stack wealth management app, saw its turnover more than triple to Rs 226.5 crore from Rs 71.3 crore in FY21.
However, it reported a loss of Rs 456.6 crore as compared with a profit of Rs 19.3 crore in fiscal 2021, according to filings sourced via private market intelligence platform PrivateCircle.
The company, registered as Bitcipher Labs LLP, saw its expenditure rose sharply, from Rs 62.7 crore to Rs 686.3 crore during the period. There's a sharp hike in expenditure heads titled 'selling expenses' and 'other expenses', with these two making up 83% of the total expenditure.
Selling expenses are marketing and promotional expenses, while other expenses majorly include professional and consulting charges and software and IT expenses, according to the company.
In responses to BQ Prime's queries, a company spokesperson said FY22 was Coinswitch's first loss-making year. "It reflect the investments and expenses that we made toward this growth phase."
"CoinSwitch has been profitable since its inception; we run a tight ship and keep a hawk eye over our unit economics. Our expenses are carefully managed and approved only if they help grow our company to a scale we envision," the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said that it has "significantly reduced" its selling expenses—by over 90%—in FY23, thus improving its numbers.
Fiscal 2022 also marked the year in which Coinswitch turned unicorn. It had raised over $260 million, or Rs 2,100 crore, in October 2021 at a valuation of $1.9 billion from new investors such as Coinbase Ventures and top Silicon Valley fund Andreessen Horowitz, in what marked the latter's first India bet.
In a conversation with BQ Prime in May, CoinSwitch Chief Executive Officer Ashish Singhal said the platform would have "multiple asset classes" on its app by the end of the calendar year.
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