Expansion costs combined with redundancy payouts contributed to post-tax losses at Irish tech unicorn Flipdish, which more than doubled from €11.4 million to €27 million this year.
Accounts for Flipdish Ltd show the digital ordering platform company recorded the losses as it continued on its growth path. Revenues of €18.2 million in the 12 months to the end of January 31st this year compared to revenues of €14 million for the previous 10 months.
The biggest contributor to the firm’s losses was administrative expenses rising by 90 per cent from €20.6 million to €39.1 million. Within this the main driver was “wages and salaries”, which almost doubled from €11.8 million to €20 million.
The company also incurred redundancy costs of €1.76 million, having recorded no cost under that heading in the previous period.
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In notes with the accounts directors say it “has recently undergone a business reorganisation so as to allow it to focus more concretely on quick service and delivery first restaurants in our core markets, with a renewed focus on managing costs and achieving profitability”.
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The directors also confirmed that the company acquired UK-based Jinoby Technologies Ltd for €5.5 million in November 2022.
Numbers employed by Flipdish Ltd in the 12 months under review increased by 24 to 240. Staff costs grew from €13.29 million to €24.05 million. Staff costs include €1.13 million paid to key management personnel. Pay to directors amounted to €551,831 for the 12-month period, compared with €456,294 for the 10 months to the end of January 2022.
Flipdish last year became the latest technology unicorn (a business valued at over $1 billion (€950m)) after a $100 million investment led by Tencent, a Chinese conglomerate. Tencent paid around $80 million for close to 8 per cent of the business. The funding, which followed a $48.5 million investment from Tiger Global Management early in 2021, valued the company at $1.25 billion.
At the end of January last Flipdish’s shareholder funds had decreased from €92.17 million to €67 million after the €27 million loss. The group’s cash funds declined from €92.54 million to €57 million.
Founded in 2015 by brothers Conor and James McCarthy, Flipdish’s technology is used by more than 7,500 customers in 32 countries, generating order revenues in excess of €250 million. Those customers include some of the leading brands in the industry including Subway, Base Pizza and Bombay Pantry.
Flipdish positions itself as an alternative to the likes of Deliveroo and Just Eat.
* This article was edited on Tuesday, October 24th to make clear that the directors remuneration set out compared a 12-month period to the end of January 2023 with a 10-month period in fiscal 2022.
