Captain Fresh FY26: revenue up 52% to Rs 5,169 Cr

Captain Fresh, the Bengaluru B2B seafood supply chain company, said consolidated net revenue rose 52 per cent to Rs 5,169 Cr in FY26 from Rs 3,397 Cr in FY25. Inc42 carried the figures on 22 September 2026. They come from a company statement, and Inc42 notes the audited FY26 financials have not been filed.

Adjusted EBITDA nearly tripled to Rs 371 Cr from Rs 136 Cr, and gross margin widened to 23.5 per cent from 17 per cent. The company said it stayed PAT positive for a second year but did not disclose an FY26 bottom line. The only profit figure in the report is FY25 net profit of Rs 42 Cr. So the headline is a revenue number, and the profit behind it is absent.

The balance sheet is where this category shows itself. Debt at year end was Rs 2,300 Cr, of which Rs 440 Cr was long term and the remainder working capital financing. Debt to equity was 1.6 against a stated target of 1.3 to 1.5. The company said it deliberately carried higher inventory through FY26 to keep customers supplied through global disruption, and expects that build to unwind. That is the honest cost of perishable, variable weight trading. Growth is funded by inventory and credit long before it reads as margin.

Sourcing runs across more than 30 countries. Ecuador was 17 per cent of FY26 sourcing, Indonesia 15 per cent, India 12 per cent and Vietnam 9 per cent, so the four named origins are 53 per cent and the balance is thin and scattered. The report gives no split of revenue by destination market, so the international share of sales is not disclosed. Group CFO Mathew George said FY26 “stress tested the industry in the form of tariffs”. The company serves close to 2,500 customers including more than 50 of the world’s largest seafood buyers.

The FY27 target is Rs 10,000 Cr, close to double FY26 on our arithmetic. For an operator the lesson is not the growth rate. A trading business on 23.5 per cent gross margin and 1.6 times leverage wins on procurement discipline and inventory turns, not on demand. Wait for the audited filing before treating a second profitable year as settled.