Rentomojo, the Indian furniture and appliance rental platform, increased its performance marketing expenditure by 86.3% to ₹20.9 crore in the financial year ended March 31, 2026. The company spent ₹11.2 crore on performance marketing in FY25, meaning the latest expenditure rose by approximately ₹9.7 crore in a single year. The increase came as Rentomojo expanded its rental business and reported revenue from operations of ₹386.99 crore, up 45.5% from ₹265.96 crore in the previous financial year.
The spending increase highlights the growing importance of customer acquisition for subscription-based rental businesses. Rentomojo allows customers to rent furniture, household appliances and other products instead of purchasing them outright. While digital marketing can help the company attract new subscribers, the higher expenditure also raises questions about the cost of acquiring customers, the returns generated by advertising and the sustainability of growth as the business expands.
Key Takeaways
- Performance marketing: Rentomojo spent ₹20.9 crore in FY26, up 86.3% from ₹11.2 crore in FY25.
- Revenue growth: Revenue from operations increased 45.5% to ₹386.99 crore.
- Net profit: Reported net profit rose to ₹104.3 crore from ₹43.1 crore, although a tax benefit materially affected the FY26 figure.
- Total expenses: Expenses increased 41.5% to ₹323.9 crore.
- Other rising costs: Contractual manpower expenditure rose to approximately ₹38 crore, while logistics spending reached nearly ₹28 crore.
- Business model: Rentomojo generates recurring revenue by renting furniture, appliances and home essentials to customers.
- Main question: The company must turn higher marketing expenditure into durable customer relationships and profitable rental revenue.
How Much Did Rentomojo Spend on Marketing?
Rentomojo’s performance marketing expenditure increased from ₹11.2 crore in FY25 to ₹20.9 crore in FY26. The 86.3% year-on-year increase was substantially faster than the company’s 45.5% growth in revenue from operations.
Performance marketing generally refers to digital advertising and promotional activity designed to generate measurable outcomes, such as website visits, customer enquiries, subscriptions or completed purchases. For a rental platform, campaigns may be intended to attract people searching for furniture, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and other household products.
| Financial metric | FY25 | FY26 | Year-on-year change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Performance marketing expenditure | ₹11.2 crore | ₹20.9 crore | +86.3% |
| Revenue from operations | ₹265.96 crore | ₹386.99 crore | +45.5% |
| Total expenses | ₹228.9 crore | ₹323.9 crore | +41.5% |
| Reported net profit | ₹43.1 crore | ₹104.3 crore | +142% |
Figures are rounded. Marketing and financial figures are based on reported FY25 and FY26 results.
The comparison suggests that Rentomojo increased its marketing investment more rapidly than its revenue expanded. However, this alone does not prove that the additional spending was inefficient. Marketing campaigns can acquire customers whose rental contracts generate revenue over several months or years.
The more useful question is whether the customers acquired through these campaigns generate sufficient lifetime revenue and contribution margin to justify the initial acquisition expense.
Why Is Rentomojo Increasing Its Marketing Budget?
Rentomojo operates in a market where consumers increasingly have alternatives to purchasing expensive household products. Renting can be attractive to people who relocate frequently, live in temporary accommodation or prefer to avoid large upfront payments for furniture and appliances.
The company needs to reach these customers at the moment they are considering a move, setting up a home or replacing an appliance. Digital advertising can help capture that demand through search engines, social media and other online channels.
1. Attracting customers looking for flexible rentals
Furniture and appliance purchases can require a substantial upfront payment. Renting spreads the expense over time and can provide flexibility when a customer’s housing or employment situation changes.
Rentomojo’s marketing can target people searching for beds, wardrobes, sofas, refrigerators, washing machines and other essentials. The platform’s proposition is particularly relevant to customers who do not want to own bulky products permanently.
However, the rental model is not suitable for every household. Customers who use a product for many years may find buying more economical than renting. Marketing therefore needs to identify people whose circumstances and expected rental periods fit the company’s offering.
2. Competing for online attention
The rental and home-furnishing market includes organised rental platforms, local providers, furniture retailers and e-commerce companies. Customers can compare rental prices, delivery options, product quality and contract terms before making a decision.
Digital advertising helps Rentomojo compete for visibility, but increased competition can make customer acquisition more expensive. More companies bidding for similar search terms or advertising audiences can raise the cost of reaching potential customers.
Higher marketing expenditure may reflect an effort to expand reach, defend market share or generate more subscriptions. The available spending figure does not, by itself, establish which objective contributed most to the increase.
3. Supporting expansion across cities and categories
Rentomojo has developed an operating network covering multiple Indian cities, supported by warehouses and offline stores. Its business involves not only attracting customers but also delivering products, maintaining inventory and collecting rented items when contracts end.
Marketing can help the company generate demand in locations where it has the operational capacity to serve customers. But campaigns must be aligned with product availability and delivery infrastructure. Acquiring customers in a location where inventory is limited could increase costs without producing an equivalent increase in completed rentals.
Revenue Is Growing, but Marketing Is Growing Faster
Rentomojo’s revenue from operations rose from ₹265.96 crore in FY25 to ₹386.99 crore in FY26. That represents an increase of ₹121.03 crore over the year.
Performance marketing expenditure rose by approximately ₹9.7 crore over the same period. This means the company’s additional marketing expenditure was much smaller than its absolute increase in revenue, although revenue growth cannot be attributed solely to advertising.
One way to examine the relationship is to compare marketing expenditure with revenue.
| Indicator | FY25 | FY26 |
|---|---|---|
| Performance marketing as a share of revenue | Approximately 4.2% | Approximately 5.4% |
| Revenue from operations | ₹265.96 crore | ₹386.99 crore |
| Performance marketing expenditure | ₹11.2 crore | ₹20.9 crore |
Shares are calculated from the reported figures and rounded.
Performance marketing’s share of revenue increased by roughly 1.2 percentage points. This suggests the company devoted a larger portion of its revenue to this specific marketing category in FY26.
The ratio is not a complete measure of marketing efficiency. It does not capture all brand-building expenditure, the number of customers acquired, customer retention, contract length or the future rental revenue generated by newly acquired subscribers.
To assess effectiveness, investors would need more information about customer acquisition cost, average revenue per subscriber, product occupancy, churn and the time required to recover acquisition spending.
Rising Expenses Extend Beyond Marketing
Rentomojo’s cost increases were not limited to advertising. Total expenses climbed 41.5% to ₹323.9 crore in FY26 from ₹228.9 crore in FY25.
Contractual manpower expenditure increased approximately 54.3% to ₹38 crore, compared with ₹24.6 crore a year earlier. Logistics spending rose 44.7% to nearly ₹28 crore from ₹19.3 crore.
Employee benefit expenses also increased to ₹60.8 crore from ₹41.4 crore, while refurbishment expenditure rose 27.7% to approximately ₹19 crore.
These expenses reflect the operational requirements of a rental business. Unlike a conventional online marketplace that primarily connects buyers and sellers, Rentomojo must manage physical products throughout their useful lives.
Items need to be procured, stored, delivered, installed, collected, inspected, repaired and prepared for the next customer. Logistics and refurbishment therefore play a central role in determining the economics of the business.
Marketing can create demand, but the company must also ensure that its operating network can fulfil orders efficiently. If logistics, labour and maintenance expenses rise too quickly, additional subscriptions may not translate into proportionate improvements in profitability.
Why the Rental Business Model Requires Long-Term Customer Value
Rentomojo’s model differs from a one-time retail sale because a product can generate rental revenue across multiple customer contracts.
For example, a refrigerator rented to one customer for a year may later be refurbished and rented to another customer. If the product remains in good condition and demand is sufficient, the same asset can generate revenue over several years.
This creates the potential for attractive lifetime economics. The company pays for the asset upfront but can earn revenue from it repeatedly, subject to maintenance, depreciation, damage, idle periods and other costs.
Marketing is therefore important because a product earns rental revenue only when it is being used and paid for. A high occupancy rate can help spread the cost of an asset over more rental periods, while prolonged idle time can weaken returns.
Rentomojo reported a product occupancy rate of 83.3% in FY26, compared with 82.8% in FY25. It also reported 9.89 lakh gross items ordered during the year, an increase of 42.5% from 6.9 lakh in FY25.
These indicators suggest that the company expanded its activity while keeping a large proportion of its product portfolio occupied. However, gross items ordered are not the same as active subscribers, and occupancy does not independently reveal customer profitability.
The next step is to determine whether marketing-led growth generates enough additional rental revenue to cover acquisition costs and the expenses associated with operating the asset base.
Rentomojo’s Profit Increased Sharply in FY26
Rentomojo reported net profit of ₹104.3 crore in FY26, compared with ₹43.1 crore in FY25. That represents a year-on-year increase of approximately 142%.
Revenue grew strongly, and the company also reported operating profit of approximately ₹163.5 crore in FY26, compared with ₹118.4 crore in FY25.
However, the reported net profit requires context. The FY26 financial statements included a tax benefit, reflected in negative tax charges of approximately ₹36.6 crore in the audited results. This materially influenced the bottom-line figure.
Consequently, the 142% increase in reported net profit should not automatically be interpreted as a comparable increase in the company’s underlying operating performance. Investors need to distinguish operating trends from tax-related effects and other items that may not recur in the same way.
The distinction is important because rising marketing expenditure can coexist with improving profitability if revenue and operating margins expand. But a reported profit increase can also overstate the improvement in recurring earnings when tax effects play a substantial role.
For Rentomojo, future financial results will help establish whether the combination of customer growth, product utilisation and expense management can sustain stronger earnings.
What Investors Should Watch Next
Rentomojo’s marketing spending provides several questions for investors and analysts to examine as the company develops its public-market track record.
First, customer acquisition cost will be important. If the company spends more on advertising to acquire each subscriber, it needs higher rental revenue, longer contracts or better retention to justify the expense.
Second, the company must sustain product occupancy. A rental asset that remains idle generates little or no rental income while continuing to incur costs associated with depreciation, storage and maintenance.
Third, investors will need to monitor logistics and refurbishment expenditure. A growing rental fleet can support revenue, but it also requires operational capacity and recurring spending to keep products in usable condition.
Finally, the quality of earnings matters. Revenue growth and operating profit should be assessed separately from tax benefits and other adjustments to understand the company’s underlying financial performance.
The available figures show that Rentomojo is expanding and investing more in customer acquisition. They do not yet establish whether the higher marketing budget will produce a proportionate long-term improvement in returns.
The Bigger Picture
Rentomojo’s 86.3% increase in performance marketing expenditure highlights the cost of scaling a consumer-facing rental platform in a competitive digital market. The company is spending more to attract customers while expanding its revenue base, product usage and operating network. Because rented products can generate income over multiple contracts, the long-term value of a customer may extend well beyond the initial advertising campaign.
The challenge is to make that model work economically. Marketing, logistics, manpower, refurbishment and depreciation all affect the return generated by each rental asset. Rentomojo’s future performance will depend on whether it can convert advertising expenditure into durable subscriptions, maintain high product occupancy and control operating costs as the business grows.
Looking Ahead
Investors will be watching Rentomojo’s subsequent quarterly results for evidence that revenue growth is keeping pace with customer acquisition costs. Metrics such as subscriber growth, product occupancy, rental revenue, operating margins and cash generation will help reveal whether the FY26 marketing increase created lasting value. The company’s recent financial disclosures provide an early baseline, but the effectiveness of the spending will become clearer over several reporting periods.
For Rentomojo, the objective is not simply to acquire more customers. It is to acquire customers who rent products for long enough, and at sufficient margins, to justify the cost of advertising and operating the rental fleet. If the company achieves that balance, higher marketing spending could support sustainable expansion. If acquisition costs continue rising without corresponding improvements in customer value, the spending could put pressure on future profitability.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How much did Rentomojo spend on performance marketing in FY26?
Rentomojo spent approximately ₹20.9 crore on performance marketing in FY26, up 86.3% from ₹11.2 crore in FY25.
2. Why did Rentomojo increase its marketing spending?
Performance marketing can help attract customers looking to rent furniture, appliances and home essentials. The reported figures do not identify one single reason for the increase, but the spending rose alongside the company’s expanding revenue and rental activity.
3. How much did Rentomojo’s revenue grow in FY26?
Revenue from operations increased 45.5% to ₹386.99 crore in FY26 from ₹265.96 crore in FY25.
4. Was Rentomojo profitable in FY26?
Yes. Rentomojo reported net profit of ₹104.3 crore, compared with ₹43.1 crore in FY25. However, a tax benefit materially influenced the FY26 result, so reported profit growth should be interpreted alongside operating performance.
5. What is performance marketing?
Performance marketing is advertising designed to generate measurable results, such as customer enquiries, website visits, subscriptions or completed transactions. Companies use it to assess how promotional spending contributes to customer acquisition.
6. Does higher marketing spending mean Rentomojo is becoming less efficient?
Not necessarily. Marketing expenditure grew faster than revenue in FY26, but that alone does not establish inefficiency. A full assessment would require customer acquisition costs, subscriber retention, rental lifetime value and the revenue generated by customers acquired through advertising.
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