Ather Reverses the Trend

Ather Energy, the oldest bona fide E2W start-up in India, is hitting the Indian bourses soon with a USD 350 million IPO at a valuation of USD 1.4 billion. This IPO comes in turbulent times, as global economies are embroiled in tariff wars, though the Indian E2W market hit a new high last month.

Published : May 12, 2025
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Ather Energy announced its Q4 FY25 and full-year FY 2025 results today. For the full year, Ather reported revenues of INR 22,550 million, a 28.57% jump from last year’s revenues of INR 17,538 million.

In Q4 of the year, Ather reported revenues of INR 6,761 million, a 29.2% jump over Q4 FY 24 revenues of INR 5,234 million.

The big talking point is the healthy improvement in gross margin. For FY 2025, Ather recorded a gross margin of 18.98%, double the 9.95% recorded in FY 2024.

Losses

Ather reported an EBITDA loss of INR 8,123 million, a significant improvement from the loss of INR 10,597 million last year.

For Q4 2025, the company has reported an improvement in EBITDA loss from 2,833 million to 2,344 million.

The Relevance of Gross Margin?

We are a bit skeptical about using Gross Margin to measure things. Yet, it remains a favorite metric for loss-making startups. Gross margin is the first line item after the Revenue and Cost of Material figures, and a positive GM is just an indication that Ather (or any loss-making startup) is not selling the vehicles at a lower price than the material costs.

But Gross Margin is irrelevant. You may have a 50% margin or any amount of impressive gross margin, and still end up making a loss. All the other costs – cost of people, finance costs, and depreciation & amortisation expenses, come after the gross margin calculations.

However, an improving gross margin is still good news and indicates that the company is changing the trend, and there should be optimism.

So Ather reporting a 100% improvement in Gross Margin does indicate that in some quarters, they may actually start making money.

The improvement in gross margin for Q4 is even more impressive at 23.1%, compared to 14.61% in Q4 2024.

EBITDA Margin

The EBITDA margin, the ratio between EBITDA and revenue, would be a better evaluator: a loss-making company would have negative EBITDA margins. Ather has a (negative) 36.4% EBITDA margin. This may look bad, but it is a huge improvement from the 60.4% (negative) EBITDA margin last year.


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