Unicommerce earns Rs 6.4 crore in September quarter as AI spending bites

Unicommerce, the listed e-commerce software company that is part of the Snapdeal group, reported a consolidated net profit of about Rs 6.4 crore for the July-September quarter of 2026, the second quarter of the financial year 2026-27 (Q2 FY27). That is roughly 11% more than the Rs 5.8 crore it earned in the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue from operations grew 15% to Rs 59.1 crore. The company disclosed the audited results in a stock exchange filing on Friday, October 23, 2026, and followed with an investor presentation on Monday, October 26. Behind the headline growth, its operating margin fell sharply because it is spending more on artificial intelligence (AI) products, staff and sales.

Unicommerce is a profitable software company that grew out of India's e-commerce start-up scene and is now listed, so its numbers are a useful signal for founders and investors watching listed new-age companies. This quarter shows a common trade-off. Revenue kept growing at a steady mid-teens pace, but expenses grew faster, so profit before tax stayed almost flat compared with a year earlier. A lower tax charge is what lifted the final net profit, according to the reported figures.

The clearest measure of that trade-off is EBITDA, short for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, which shows how much a business makes from its core operations. Unicommerce's adjusted EBITDA margin fell by about five percentage points, from 22.2% to 17.0%. The company says this was planned: it is putting more money into product development, hiring and its sales team, with a focus on AI. Management has said it expects profitability to improve in the second half of FY27 as these extra investments level off.

The launch of a second-generation AI companion, DNA, fits a wider pattern among software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies, which sell software on subscription. Many are adding AI assistants to their products to keep customers and charge more, and they accept lower margins for a period while they build them. Whether that spending pays off usually shows up later, in faster revenue growth or higher revenue per client.

Short-term: The results show steady demand, with 121 new enterprise clients, but thinner margins. The company's own guidance points to margin pressure easing only in the October-March half of the year.

Long-term: If the AI products, including DNA, help win and keep larger clients, the current dip in margin could be recovered through faster growth. If revenue growth stays near 15% while costs keep rising, profit growth will stay modest.

Who is affected: Unicommerce's shareholders and staff, the brands and sellers that use its software, other listed and IPO-bound SaaS start-ups that are judged against it, and founders deciding how much to spend on AI features.

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