Team StartupCity

• Travel fintech startup Scapia raises $40 million in Series B funding, led by Peak XV, backing its long-term growth despite continued losses.
• The company reported over 70% YoY scale growth in FY25, with operating revenue rising to Rs 29 crore and improved unit economics.
• Founded by Anil Goteti, Scapia focuses on a lifetime-free travel credit card, monetising through interchange, EMI interest, and travel commissions while tightening costs and reducing net losses.

Scapia, the travel fintech startup, has raised $40 million in Series B funding in a round dominated by investment firm Peak XV. This investment is a testament to the growing faith of the investors in the long-term growth trajectory of the startup, despite posting continuous losses. This investment comes on the back of the close of the FY25 fiscal year, during which the company posted more than 70% growth in scale on a year-on-year basis.

This investment is likely to fuel the growth ambitions of Scapia in the fintech travel space, despite the focus on profitability. Scapia was founded by Anil Goteti and is a fintech-enabled travel company with a focus on a lifetime-free credit card, which is targeted towards frequent travelers.

The company makes money through a combination of interchange, interest earned from E-MIs, and commissions earned from bookings made on partner platforms, besides which the card has travel-related reward and benefit programs for the card holders. The company has managed to increase its topline revenues through this multiple revenue streams approach.

As per Scapia’s financial statements filed with the Registrar of Companies, Scapia reported significantly increased operating revenue at Rs 29 crores in FY25 compared to FY24’s operating revenue of Rs 17 crores. The service income segment remained Scapia’s mainstay of income, accounting for close to 83% of total operating revenue.

The segment reported an increase of 60% in FY25 at Rs 24 crores. The convenience fee segment registered an increase of over three-fold to Rs 3.4 crores, in addition to commission income from travel bookings that witnessed an increase of 71.4% to Rs 1.2 crores.

On the expenditure side, Employee benefit expenses continue to be the major cost head, contributing close to half of the total amount spent by the company. This cost head witnessed a sharp growth of 71.8% to touch Rs 61 crore in FY25 from Rs 35.5 crore a year ago as the company decided to build and retain better talent. On the advertising front, however, the company cut the costs substantially by 35% to Rs 32 crore, showing a controlled approach towards customer acquisition.

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Other operating costs remained stable with lounge service costs remaining the same at Rs 7 crore and subscription charge increasing by 17% at Rs 7 crore. Customer support cost inched up at Rs 4 crore, with others rising by 21% at Rs 12.5 crore.

In conclusion, it was found that the total expenses of Scapia increased to a lesser extent by 10%, reaching 123.5 crore in FY25 from 112 crore in FY24. Consequently, this increase in revenue outpacing costs led to a decrease in the Net Loss to 83 crore in FY25 from 88 crore in FY24. Nevertheless, the ROCE Ratio and EBITDA Margin continued to be negatively impacted at -22.98% and -322.41%, respectively.

From a unit economics perspective, Scapia incurred a cost of Rs 4.26 to generate each rupee of revenue during FY25, which is a marked improvement over FY24’s cost of Rs 6.59 per rupee of revenue. Scapia has also tightened its balance sheet, ending FY25 with cash and bank balances and current assets amounting to Rs 305 crore and Rs 331 crore, respectively.

Scapia has received a total of$72 million funding so far, and its key investors are Peak XV Partners, Matrix Partners, and Elevation Capital. Scapia’s founder, Anil Goteti, still retains a 40% stake in Scapia, maintaining a robust ownership structure for Scapia as it embarks on its next journey.