Cars24's revenue declined for a second consecutive year in the fiscal year ended March 2026, as the used-car marketplace navigated a challenging period marked by cost cuts, layoffs and a series of senior-level exits, according to the company's consolidated financial statements filed with India's Registrar of Companies and reported by Entrackr on September 4, 2026.
The Gurugram-based company's revenue from operations fell 18.3 percent to ₹5,092 crore in FY26, down from ₹6,233 crore in FY25 and ₹6,917 crore in FY24. The sale of cars through Cars24's auction and retail businesses remained the largest contributor to revenue, accounting for around 87 percent of the total, but that core segment declined 22.7 percent to ₹4,349 crore in FY26 — following an 11 percent decline in FY25, indicating that pressure on the company's core used-car business has now persisted for a second consecutive year.
Despite the continued revenue decline, Cars24 narrowed its net loss by 18.8 percent to ₹441 crore in FY26, down from ₹543 crore in FY25, with an EBITDA margin of 8.63 percent and return on capital employed of 19.6 percent for the fiscal year.
The financial pressure has coincided with sustained leadership churn at the company through 2026. India used-car CEO Himanshu Ratnoo stepped down in March, with group CEO Vikram Chopra taking direct oversight of the business; co-founder Gajendra Jangid subsequently stepped back from day-to-day operations, and co-founder and COO Mehul Agrawal also exited his operating role in April — a string of departures that has added to scrutiny of the company's operational trajectory even as its financials show signs of stabilizing on a net-loss basis.
The revenue pressure stands in sharp contrast to the performance of rival Spinny, which has emerged as the leading player in India's used-car retail space, growing revenue more than 28 percent in FY26 to cross the ₹6,000 crore threshold, with sources indicating the company is expected to grow a further 25 to 30 percent in FY27. Spinny has also raised $320 million in capital over the past year, giving it a substantially stronger balance sheet position relative to Cars24, which has not raised external funding in nearly three years, since securing $450 million at a $3.3 billion valuation in December 2021 from investors including SoftBank, Alpha Wave, Tencent and DST Global.
Cars24's financial services subsidiary offered a rare bright spot within the group's FY26 results, with turnover rising to ₹299 crore from ₹264.5 crore in FY25, while profit after tax more than tripled to ₹21.4 crore from ₹6.8 crore. The company has also pursued inorganic growth over the past year, acquiring vehicle information and management platform CarInfo and automotive community platform Team-BHP, as it looks to diversify revenue streams beyond its core, and currently pressured, used-car auction and retail business.
The results arrive as Cars24 works toward a planned initial public offering, which group CEO Vikram Chopra indicated in January 2026 the company was targeting within the following twelve months, positioning a listing around January 2027. Chopra has highlighted improvements in the startup's financial health without detailing specific IPO terms, and the continued narrowing of net losses in FY26 — even amid declining revenue — will likely be cited by the company as evidence of improving underlying discipline ahead of any public listing.
For prospective public-market investors, however, the divergence between Cars24's declining core revenue and Spinny's accelerating growth is likely to be a central point of scrutiny, raising questions about whether Cars24's narrower losses reflect genuine operational improvement or simply a more conservative, lower-growth posture in a used-car market where a well-capitalized rival is expanding aggressively.
Cars24's ability to reverse the two-year decline in its core auction and retail business — while also demonstrating that its improving loss trajectory is durable rather than the product of one-off cost cuts — is likely to be the key factor shaping investor reception of any future public offering.
