Startup Deep Dive : Cashify — losses shrink 80% while revenue nears Rs 1,100 crore

Cashify sold close to ₹1,100 crore (about $114 million at $1 ≈ ₹96.0) of second-hand phones and gadgets in the year to March 2025 — and still ended it in the red. The catch is that the loss was only ₹10.5 crore, down from ₹53 crore a year earlier, and the company that spent its first years as an e-waste consultancy now tells bankers it will be profitable in FY26 and listed on the stock market by early 2027.

That arc — from disposing of Nokia’s dead stock in 2009 to running one of India’s largest organised markets for used electronics — is the Cashify story. Along the way it rebranded once, pivoted its entire business, raised roughly $130–140 million, and learned that the hardest part of recommerce is not buying old phones but making a margin when you sell them. This deep dive traces how the numbers actually stack up, using company filings compiled by Entrackr and Inc42 from the Registrar of Companies, and press coverage of its funding and IPO plans.

Quick facts

What Cashify does

Cashify buys used consumer electronics from people and companies, refurbishes them, and resells them. A customer enters a phone’s make, model and condition on the app or website, gets an instant price, and hands the device over — through doorstep pickup, an offline store, or an OEM exchange counter — for cash or credit. Cashify then grades, repairs and resells the device to another buyer, in India or abroad. It also runs a repair service and sells accessories. The main categories are smartphones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches, gaming consoles and televisions, with smartphones dominating the mix.

The origin

The founding insight was not “buy and sell used phones.” It was waste. Mandeep Manocha started what became Manak Waste Management Private Limited in 2009, registered as ReGlobe, as a consultancy that helped companies dispose of goods that were past their shelf life. Its first project was with Nokia, then the largest handset maker in India, handling stock that could not be sold new.

Working inside that reverse-supply-chain problem taught the founders something the pure e-commerce boom of the early 2010s had missed: millions of working phones were sitting in drawers because there was no trusted, priced, convenient way to sell them. Grey-market shops lowballed sellers and offered no guarantees. In 2013, ReGlobe was rebuilt and rebranded as Cashify — a platform where a person could look up what a gadget was worth and sell it in a few taps. The consultancy had become a recommerce company, and the e-waste DNA stayed: the pitch was always as much about keeping devices in use as about the cash.

The struggle years

Recommerce is a deceptively hard business, and Cashify’s losses widened for years before they narrowed. Building trust in used electronics meant owning the whole chain — sourcing, grading, repair, resale — which is capital-heavy and low-margin. Two features of the record stand out.

• Losses climbed as the company scaled. Net loss went from ₹99 crore in FY22 to ₹147.9 crore in FY23 (Entrackr/Business Insider, RoC filings) — the company was spending more to grow than each rupee of revenue returned.
• Growth by acquisition and physical expansion added cost. Cashify bought MobiBing (Bengaluru, July 2016), Teksolvr (Chandigarh, January 2019) and UniShop (July 2021), and pushed offline: from its first store in Faridabad in July 2019 to 103 stores by April 2022 (Wikipedia, citing company statements). Stores build trust but carry rent and staff before they pay back.

Through this period Cashify was competing against grey-market aggregators with almost no fixed costs, while itself carrying refurbishing facilities, warranties and a retail network. The bet was that organised, guaranteed recommerce would eventually out-earn the informal market — but for several years the filings showed the bill for that bet, not the payoff.

The turning point

The turn shows up sharply between FY24 and FY25. In FY24 Cashify posted ₹935 crore of operating revenue and a ₹53 crore net loss; in FY25 revenue rose about 17% to ₹1,096 crore while the net loss collapsed 80% to ₹10.5 crore (Entrackr/Inc42, RoC filings). Two things drove the swing on the same revenue base.

First, price mix. Cashify’s average selling price for a used smartphone more than doubled from about ₹10,000 in 2023 to roughly ₹23,000 by 2026, and Apple iPhones grew to about 64.5% of refurbished smartphone sales (Inc42). Selling higher-value phones lifts the rupees earned per transaction without a matching rise in handling cost. Second, cost discipline: FY25 expenses rose only 12% to ₹1,133 crore even as revenue rose 17%, so the gap between the two nearly closed. The result was an EBITDA margin of about −2.1% and a net loss barely above break-even — the point at which management began telling bankers a profitable FY26 was in reach.

The money behind it

Cashify has raised roughly $130–140 million (about ₹1,200 crore) across its life, from a mix of India-focused and global investors (TechCrunch, Outlook Business). The shape of the funding:

• April 2015: early cheque from Bessemer Venture Partners and Blume Ventures (amount undisclosed) — the backers that first validated recommerce.
• July 2017: Series A led by Shunwei Capital (undisclosed).
• February 2018: ₹6 crore venture debt from Trifecta Capital.
• June 2018: $12 million led by CDH Investments and Morningside Venture.
• March 2021: $15 million Series D from Asia Environmental Partners — investor identity that fit the circular-economy pitch.
• June 2022: $90 million Series E led by NewQuest Capital and Prosus, with Olympus Capital, Bessemer, Blume and Paramark Ventures participating (Entrackr/TechCrunch) — by far the largest round, funding the offline and refurbishing build-out.

On valuation, Cashify was reported at around $250 million when it took the first tranche of the Series E, and it said the round marked a 2.5x jump — though sources differ on whether that multiple is measured against the Series C or the Series D, so the exact prior mark is unsettled. The company itself did not publish a headline valuation. Its largest shareholders now include NewQuest Capital (about 19.5%), Olympus Capital Asia and Prosus-linked entities (Entrackr).

How it makes money

Cashify runs a full-stack, first-party model rather than a pure marketplace: it takes ownership of devices and resells them, so its revenue is largely the sale value of goods, not a thin commission. The mechanics:

• Buy low, sell higher. The margin sits in the spread between what Cashify pays a seller and what a refurbished device fetches, minus grading, repair, warranty and logistics costs. Because it owns the inventory, cost of materials is its single biggest line — ₹924 crore, about 82% of all costs, in FY25 (Entrackr).
• Sourcing at scale. Devices come from consumer buyback and trade-ins, OEM exchange programmes (Cashify has powered exchange for brands including Google’s Pixel line), and corporate buybacks and returns (Inc42). Controlling supply is the moat against grey-market aggregators.
• Services on top. Repairs and commissions add a higher-margin layer — ₹97 crore in FY25, up about 22% YoY (Entrackr).
• Omnichannel trust. Over 100 offline stores plus the app let buyers see and return refurbished devices, which is what lets Cashify charge more than an anonymous grey-market seller could.

The part people get wrong: because headline revenue is close to ₹1,100 crore, Cashify can look like a large, healthy retailer. But the model is inherently thin-margin — the value is in a rupee or two of spread per rupee of goods sold — which is exactly why an 80% cut in losses on flat-ish margins was the real achievement of FY25.

The numbers

Operating revenue and net loss by fiscal year (year ending 31 March), in ₹ crore, from RoC filings compiled by Entrackr, Inc42 and Business Insider:

For context, operating revenue was about ₹333 crore in FY21 (Entrackr), so the top line has roughly tripled in four years. FY25 total income including ₹26 crore of other income (mostly interest on deposits) was about ₹1,122 crore. Management has projected FY26 revenue of ₹1,500–1,600 crore and a maiden profit after tax of ₹20–30 crore (Outlook Business) — a company projection, not an audited figure, so it should be read as guidance rather than fact.

Where the money comes from

The FY25 revenue split (Entrackr) shows how concentrated the business is on device resale:

• Sale of pre-owned devices: about ₹999 crore, roughly 91% of operating revenue, up about 17% YoY.
• Services (repairs and commissions): about ₹97 crore, roughly 9%, up about 22% YoY.
• Within devices, smartphones dominate — founder Mandeep Manocha put the phone category at roughly 90% of revenue in 2022, and Apple iPhones alone are now about 64.5% of refurbished smartphone sales (TechCrunch; Inc42).

The surprise is the premium tilt. A used-electronics business is easy to picture as a low-value, high-volume operation, but Cashify’s economics have swung on selling more expensive phones: the doubling of average selling price to about ₹23,000 and the iPhone-heavy mix mean fewer, pricier transactions now carry the business. Cashify has even opened a “select” store in Bengaluru aimed at premium refurbished electronics.

The risks

• Structurally thin margins. With cost of materials at about 82% of all costs (FY25, Entrackr) and an EBITDA margin near −2%, there is little room for error; a small rise in procurement prices or a dip in resale values can push the business back into meaningful losses. Profitability for FY26 is still a projection, not a result.
• Dependence on Apple resale values. With iPhones at about 64.5% of refurbished sales, Cashify’s average selling price and margin are tied to how well used iPhones hold value. A shift in Apple’s pricing, trade-in terms or new-model cadence would flow straight into the mix.
• Supply and competition. Cashify sources through OEM exchange tie-ups, consumer buyback and corporate returns, but it competes with informal grey-market aggregators that carry almost no fixed costs. Losing an OEM exchange partnership, or grey-market players undercutting on buyback prices, would squeeze both supply and spread.
• IPO and expansion execution. The reported ₹1,500–1,800 crore IPO and continued store expansion assume the FY26 turn to profit holds and public-market appetite for a thin-margin retailer is there — neither is guaranteed at the time of writing.

The takeaway

The transferable lesson from Cashify is about where a margin actually lives. For most of its life the company grew its top line handsomely while its losses grew faster, because owning every node of a recommerce chain is expensive and the spread on a cheap used phone is tiny. The FY25 turn did not come from a bigger revenue jump — growth actually slowed to about 17% — but from selling higher-value devices and holding costs below revenue growth. In a thin-margin business, mix and discipline beat raw scale. A company can triple revenue in four years and still be one bad quarter of procurement prices away from a loss; the durable win is the one measured in basis points, not headlines.

Frequently asked questions

What is Cashify and who owns it?

Cashify is an Indian recommerce company that buys, refurbishes and resells used electronics, mainly smartphones. Its legal entity is Manak Waste Management Private Limited. It is privately held; major shareholders include NewQuest Capital, Prosus, Olympus Capital Asia, Bessemer Venture Partners and Blume Ventures.

Is Cashify profitable?

Not yet on an audited basis. It posted a net loss of ₹10.5 crore in FY25, down 80% from ₹53 crore in FY24 (Entrackr/Inc42). Management has projected a maiden profit of ₹20–30 crore in FY26, but that is company guidance rather than a filed result.

How much has Cashify raised and at what valuation?

About $130–140 million (roughly ₹1,200 crore) across rounds, the largest being a $90 million Series E in June 2022 led by NewQuest and Prosus. It was reported at around $250 million at the first tranche of that round; the company did not publish an official valuation.

How does Cashify make money?

It takes ownership of used devices, refurbishes them and resells them, earning the spread between the buyback price and the resale price, minus repair, warranty and logistics costs. It adds a smaller, higher-margin layer from repairs and commissions. In FY25 device sales were about 91% of revenue and services about 9%.

Is Cashify planning an IPO?

According to Outlook Business, Cashify is preparing a confidential IPO filing in 2026 targeting a raise of ₹1,500–1,800 crore and an early-2027 listing, with early backers expected to sell part of their stakes. The plan is contingent on its turn to profitability holding.

Sources

Figures are as of September 2026. Currency converted at $1 ≈ ₹96.0 as of 18 September 2026 (Trading Economics).

• Entrackr — “Cashify’s FY25 income nears Rs 1,100 Cr, losses shrink 80%” (October 2025)
• Inc42 — “Cashify Trims Loss By 80% To INR 11 Cr In FY25” and Cashify financials page (October 2025 / 2026)
• Entrackr — “Cashify crosses Rs 800 Cr revenue in FY23, losses spike 50%” (November 2023)
• Entrackr — “Cashify gross revenue nears Rs 500 Cr in FY22, losses spike 2.8X” (January 2023)
• Entrackr — “Cashify nears Rs 1,000 Cr revenue in FY24, cuts losses by two-third” (2024)
• Business Insider India — “Cashify’s losses surge nearly 50% to Rs 148 cr in FY23” (November 2023)
• TechCrunch — “Smartphone re-commerce platform Cashify bags $90 million in new funding” (June 2022)
• Entrackr — “Cashify scoops up $90 Mn in Series E round” (June 2022)
• Outlook Business — “Cashify Eyes ₹1,800 Cr IPO, Plans Stock Market Debut in Early 2027” (2026)
• Inc42 — “Nothing Grey About It: For Cashify, The Future Is Circular” (2026)
• Wikipedia — “Cashify” (accessed September 2026)
• Tofler / Registrar of Companies — Manak Waste Management Private Limited (CIN U46524DL2009PTC190441)

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