Medikabazaar's long road to recovery

The numbers tell a stark story. Medikabazaar, the health-tech startup that was once set to join India's unicorn club, posted losses of Rs 394.8 crore for fiscal 2024, wider than the previous year's Rs 303.4 crore loss, despite revenue climbing 47 percent to Rs 1,406.9 crore. 

For most companies, growing revenue while losing more money may raise a few eyebrows. But for Medikabazaar, it's the apparent cost of cleaning up years of alleged financial fraud.

The latest results, dated March 29 this year and available publicly last week, offer the clearest view yet of what a corporate cleanup looks like in practice. There's Rs 178.65 crore in exceptional losses—a line item that covers everything from expired stock to bad debts to costs that defy easy labelling. This was higher than last year, when the company recorded Rs 130.47 crore in exceptional losses. The company’s auditors, JC Bhalla & Co, delivered what amounts to a formal warning: a qualified opinion on the financial statements and an adverse opinion on internal controls.