Blibli fails to make most of revenue surge

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Hello reader,

High-growth tech startups always seem to be raking in the dough even if they’re stuck in the red for years on end. Investors continue to hand them funds with the belief that the economies-of-scale business model will bear fruit. This is especially true in the case of ecommerce firms.

Building a brand and trying to get a foothold in hotly contested ecommerce markets costs serious cash. Further, to keep prices competitive, startups can’t afford to charge top dollar for their products or services right off the bat. So even if they’re bringing in substantial revenue, profitability could be years away.

Indonesia-based Blibli finds itself in a similar conundrum. Despite bringing in net revenues of US$1 billion in 2022, the company is still EBITDA negative. In fact, the metric worsened by 41% last year.

However, with EBITDA as a percentage of total processing value improving, there are some prominent signs that the publicly-listed ecommerce company remains on track to profitability.

Today’s featured piece dives deep into Blibli’s financial year 2022, which ended on December 31. With the help of graphics, my colleague, Jofie, makes sense of why profitability continues to evade the firm’s grasp, and how it has benefited from expanding its offline presence.

The premium story also highlights the worrying trend of dwindling assets in Blibli’s books and gathers compelling insights into the company’s plans in 2023 from CEO Kusumo Martanto as well as CFO Hendry.

Today we look at:

• What Indonesia-based Blibli’s latest financial figures means for its future
• Selex Motors raising $3m to supercharge EV expansion in Vietnam
• Other newsy highlights such as Singapore-based Cosmose AI hitting US$500 million valuation following its latest fundraise

— Shravanth

P.S.: If you’re an entrepreneur looking for funding, fill out this form to get your company featured on our list of fundraising startups.

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