Excitel Turns Profitable in FY26 with ₹40 Cr Net Profit
Infographic: Excitel Achieves Profitability in FY26, Reports ₹560 Cr Revenue
Key Highlights
Internet provider Excitel achieves profitability in FY26, reporting ₹40 Cr net profit on ₹530 Cr revenue, driven by strategic recalibration and improved margins.
Internet service provider Excitel announced it achieved profitability in the financial year ended March 2026 (FY26), reporting a profit after tax () of ₹40 Cr. This turnaround follows a net loss of ₹70 Cr in the previous fiscal year, FY25, and comes as the company recalibrated its geographic reach and go-to-market strategies.
Excitel Reports Profitability Amid Strategic Recalibration
Excitel’s operating revenue remained largely flat, standing at ₹530 Cr in FY26, a marginal increase from ₹516 Cr in FY25. Despite the top line consistency, the company significantly improved its margins, with its surging 2.5X year-on-year to ₹75 Cr during the fiscal year under review.
The company’s total expenses for FY26 amounted to ₹460 Cr. Last-mile connectivity constituted the largest portion of these costs at ₹200 Cr, reflecting Excitel’s model of partnering with local cable providers and sharing 38% of its revenue with them. Additionally, Excitel CEO Varun Pasricha stated that approximately ₹100 Cr was allocated to manpower and ₹80 Cr to network expansion.
“The profitability came at the cost of not growing because actually we grew in the cities where we are, but we also removed the cities which did not make sense,” Pasricha told Inc42, explaining the strategic shift.
Geographic Strategy and Efficiency Gains
The financial turnaround was driven by Excitel’s decision to refine its geographic footprint, which involved shutting down operations in Mumbai and certain smaller towns and cities across North India. This move, initiated around mid-2024, marked a reversal from an earlier aggressive expansion strategy.
Excitel subsequently focused on optimizing profitability in its existing operational cities, implementing measures to eliminate waste, enhance efficiencies, and increase automation in areas such as customer relationship management (CRM). This strategic pivot also meant exiting markets that proved challenging to penetrate economically.
Pasricha highlighted Mumbai as an example, noting the dominance of local providers offering broadband services at significantly lower rates. He stated, “It becomes a very brutal fight to the bottom if you want to compete at those prices. And we decided that Excitel stands for a certain level of service and quality that we can’t deliver at the price. It is better to call it a lack of product-market-fit than to persist in this battle.”
Similarly, smaller towns in regions like Haryana and Uttar Pradesh presented hurdles for independent ISPs lacking a complementary telecom business to amortize capital expenditure costs. Pasricha explained that making these towns profitable would have required several years, diverting resources from more viable large cities.
The company also leveraged automation in CRM, customer support, network monitoring, and surveillance to reduce operational costs. This initiative has resulted in approximately 70% of customer tickets being resolved without human intervention, leading to a 15-20% year-on-year increase in per-employee productivity.
Future Growth and Market Expansion Plans
Looking ahead, Excitel plans to intensify its focus on existing high-growth geographies, including Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Kanpur, Jaipur, and Varanasi. The company currently serves 1 million users and aims to acquire its next million users from these established markets.
Further expansion is slated for early-2027, with plans to enter new cities such as Chennai, Pune, and Kolkata. For the current financial year (FY27), Excitel targets a 20% growth in its customer base and aspires to reach 10 million users within the next five years.
Financially, Excitel projects a revenue growth of 15-16% in FY27, targeting a profit after tax of ₹50 Cr and an EBITDA of ₹100 Cr. The startup also intends to introduce new product offerings, including internet protocol television (IPTV), which will bundle OTT platforms with cable TV services on its broadband network to penetrate new households.
Despite a recent surge in component costs for modems and fibre optic cables due to supply chain disruptions, geopolitical tensions, and Rupee depreciation, Excitel is not seeking external funding in the near future. Pasricha confirmed that the company’s current cash flow generation is sufficient to cover its capital expenditure requirements, having raised $16.5 Mn to date.