Bengaluru-based cloud telephony company Exotel swung to a consolidated net profit of Rs 20 crore in the financial year ended March 2025 (FY25), from a loss of Rs 37 crore reported a year earlier. The turnaround was driven by sharp uptick in revenue from the Middle East, an improvement in EBITDA margin, and increased AI adoption across its customer experience (CX) ecosystem.
The company’s revenue from operations increased 10% to Rs 490.5 crore in FY25 from Rs 444.5 crore in FY24, its financial statements sourced from the Registrar of Companies (RoC) show.
Including other income of Rs 16.6 crore, Exotel’s total revenue stood at Rs 507.1 crore during FY25, up 10.2% from Rs 460 crore reported in the previous year.
Notably, Exotel posted an EBITDA profit of Rs 50.2 crore during the year under review as against an EBITDA loss of Rs 15.6 crore reported in FY24. As a result, EBITDA margin improved to 10.2% in FY25, compared to -3.5% a year earlier.
Exotel’s Customer Experience (CX) Ecosystem
Founded in 2011 by Shivakumar Ganesan, Ishwar Sridharan, and Siddharth Ramesh, Exotel offers cloud-calling services to businesses across India, allowing them to make calls to customers over the internet instead of traditional telephone lines. It has contact centres across Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru, among other cities.
Over the years, it has evolved into a full-stack customer engagement platform. The company offers its clients AI-enabled voice and chatbots, software development kits, mobile apps, browser extensions, and APIs.
For instance, ride-hailing platform Ola uses Exotel’s platform to send text messages to its customers. Food tech company Swiggy relies on the startup to mask phone numbers when a delivery partner calls a customer. Relationship managers at HDFC Bank use Exotel to engage with savings account customers.
Exotel directly competes with Gupshup-owned Knowlarity, MyOperator, Ozonotel, Tata Communications, and a few others in the cloud telephony market.
Middle East Now Makes Over One-Third of Exotel’s Revenue
Exotel generates revenue primarily from internet-enabled voice and messaging services. It also derives revenue from software licensing and conversational AI solutions. Businesses can use Exotel’s platform to integrate chatbot services into their websites, apps, and WhatsApp channels.
Exotel did not provide a segment-wise revenue breakup. However, documents reviewed by MediaNama showed that the company’s UAE-based subsidiary contributed Rs 164.3 crore to the top line in FY25, a five-fold increase over Rs 35.4 crore reported in the previous year. Outside India, the company also has a presence in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and the US.
Exotel onboarded more than 1,300 customers last year, including ITC Salaam in Saudi Arabia, Tata Consultancy Services, Bajaj Allianz, City Mall, Krazybee, and Shadowfax.
Exotel’s AI Pivot To Control Cash Burn
Over the past 12 months, Exotel has integrated several AI-enabled solutions into its CX ecosystem. This AI pivot was instrumental in the company’s recovery in FY25.
In November last year, Exotel rolled out a platform called ‘Harmony’ that integrates voice, messaging, and AI into a single full-stack CX operating system. The launch came amid growing global demand for conversational AI, a segment expected to reach a market size of over $150 billion by 2033, up from roughly $14 billion in 2024, reflecting a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 29% during the period.
Prior to that, in August 2025, the company launched a programmable voice infrastructure for AI agents dubbed ‘AgentStream’. Under this offering, Exotel provides a real-time voice streaming platform that connects users with AI voice bots over Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) (the traditional telephone network), WhatsApp, in-app channels, and Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC), as per a report by The Hindu.
Zooming Into Expenses
Central to Exotel’s bottom-line improvement in FY25 was AI-led cost efficiency. Despite growth in scale, the company’s total expenses declined 4% to Rs 481 crore during the year under review, compared to Rs 498.8 crore in FY24. Here’s a breakdown of the company’s spending in FY25:
Telephone & Postage Expense: For the cloud-based voice and SMS contact centre firm, telephone and postage remained the biggest expense head. The company saw a 8% increase in this cost to Rs 211.8 crore in FY25, compared to Rs 195.4 crore in the previous year.
Employee Cost: Exotel incurred Rs 147 crore in employee remuneration and welfare expenses in FY25, down 21% from Rs 186.4 crore in the previous year. This indicates that the company laid off some of its staff during the reported year. Reports suggest that the cloud telephony platform had cut 15% of its workforce in FY24 as well.
Miscellaneous Expenses: The company spent Rs 38.4 crore under this expenses during FY25, up from Rs 37 crore a year earlier. However, it did not provide a detailed breakup of these expenses.
Exotel’s IPO Plans
Exotel is among the growing list of new-age tech companies preparing to launch an initial public offering (IPO). In 2022, co-founder and chief operating officer (COO) Ishwar Sridharan reportedly said the company was aiming to go public in the next 3–4 years. It is pertinent to note, however, that Exotel is yet to file its draft initial public offering (IPO) papers with market regulator SEBI.
Several Indian startups are preparing to tap the public markets over the next 12–18 months. The list includes boAt, PhonePe, OYO, Zepto, and Shiprocket, among others. Last year, 18 new-age firms debuted on the stock market, including Lenskart, Groww, Urban Company, Pine Labs, Meesho, and PhysicsWallah.
Curated by Shiv Shakti Mishra
