Good evening, everyone. On behalf of ICICI Securities, I would like to welcome you all to quarter three and nine-month FY '26 earning call of Matrimony.com.

From the company, we have Mr. Murugavel Janakiraman, MD and CEO, and Mr.

Harigovind Krishnasamy, CFO. The call will begin with brief management remarks, followed by a Q&A session.

I would like to hand over the call to Mr. Janakiraman for his opening remark.

Over to you, sir.

Good evening everyone. Thank you, Mr.

Jayram Shetty. In our matrimony business, our billing continue to grow at a healthy rate on year-on-year basis.

We have initiated a share buyback in January 2026, accounting to ₹58.5 crores to reward our shareholders. We'll continue to evaluate opportunity to reward our shareholders in future as well, subject to necessary board and shareholders' approval.

I'm pleased to inform you that Matrimony.com has officially been certified as a Great Place to Work for the second consecutive year by Great Places to Work India. This recognition based on feedback from all of our associates and with score better than the previous year.

This reflects our commitment to fostering a culture of trust, respect, and collaboration, complemented by dedication and contribution of our leaders and associates. Our Many Jobs business has crossed 1 million app downloads and has more than 10,000 recruiters using our platform to leading brands across the industry.

Top-line operating metrics also have improved compared to quarter two. We are we are revamped our product offering for luv.com, which which aims to assist the customer build meaningful and lasting relationships.

We have launched AI chatbot in our matrimony business, and we continue to look at leveraging AI in all areas of of of our operation. Now coming to the results, in quarter three, on a consolidated basis, we achieved a billing of ₹117.9 crores, a growth of 7.8% year-on-year, and a decline of 0.5% quarter-over-quarter; revenue at ₹113.2 crores, a growth of 1.6% year-on-year, and decline of 1.2% quarter-over-quarter.

Key highlights for the matrimony business in quarter three are as follows: billing at ₹117 ₹117 crores, a growth of 8% year-on-year, and a decline of 0.5% quarter-over-quarter; revenue at ₹112.1 crores, a growth of 1.8% year-on-year, and decline of 1.3% quarter-over-quarter. Active paid profile were 2.5 lakhs at the end of quarter three, a growth of 3% year-on-year, and 4% quarter-over-quarter.

ATV for the match-led business increased by 13.3% year-on-year, and 4.5 7% quarter-over-quarter. We created about 25,600 success stories for the in the quarter.

Now coming to wedding services and other businesses, billing was ₹91 lakhs, a decline of 2.6% quarter-over-quarter and 12.5% year-on-year. Revenue was ₹1.13 crores, a growth of 7.7% quarter-over-quarter, a decline of 15.7% year-on-year.

EBITDA loss for the quarter was ₹3.2 crores, compared to loss of ₹2.8 quarter ₹2.8 crores in quarter two, and ₹3.8 crores in quarter three of last year. The loss also include the new initiatives.

On the billing and revenue outlook for quarter four, we expect a double-digit or high single-digit growth in matrimony billings in quarter four on year-on-year basis. Let me now pass on to our CFO, Harigovind, to comment on the key profitability highlights.

Thanks, Muruga. Good evening, everyone.

Our EBITDA margin for the matchmaking business in Q3 is at 19.2% as compared to 17.1% in Q2, and 18.7% a year ago. Marketing expenses for matchmaking in Q3 are at 43.9 crores, as compared to 45.8 crores in Q2, and 46.2 crore a year ago.

Excluding marketing expenses, our margins in matchmaking business are at 58% as compared to 57% in Q2. On a consolidated basis, our EBITDA margins in Q3 are at 11.3%, as compared to 10.8% in Q2, and 12.4% a year ago.

Tax rate for the quarter stood at 22.1%. PAT is at 8.3 crores, a growth of 7% on a quarter-on-quarter basis, and a decline of 16.7% on a year-on-year basis.

Share of Q3 loss from AstroVision, our associate company, is 4 lakhs. Cash and investment closing balance is at 345 crores.

ROCE is 9.7% on an annualized basis. On the outlook for Q3 Q4 margins, we expect double-digit growth in operational profit on QoQ and YoY basis.

I would like to end with the customary safe harbor statement: certain statements during this call could be forward-looking statements on our business. These involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements.

We do not undertake to update any such forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company, unless it is required by law.

Thanks. We can now take questions.

Good evening, gentlemen. Hello?

Hello?

Yes, Mr. Vasudevan.

Please, we can hear you, go ahead. Please.

Good evening, sir. I have three questions, sir, all small, shorter one.

Your marriage services revenue has been dropping every year, sir, and because of this, losses are also increasing. Is it viable to close this business so that our bottom line will increase, sir?

This is dominated more by offline model than online. This is my first question.

The second question is, why invest in Bharat Eco last quarter, sir? Is it for the integration with our app?

Please throw some light on that. Third, AstroTalk revenue is more than 1,000 crores.

Though our company has Astro division, it is in the sleep mode. Any update, sir?

The company refuses to pluck this low-hanging fruit, sir. That's all.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Thank you, Mr. Vasudevan, for asking this question.

Marriage services, we continue to figure out what is the best way to take the business forward, and as we speak, we're exploring how to capture the opportunity in front of us in wedding services. I think we believe that we are able to identify how we want to take the business forward.

Probably in the coming year, we'll have better visibility and clarity on wedding services. We believe that the approach what we are taking we probably may move into maybe the commission-based model rather than subscription-based model.

We are experimenting certain things. Probably in the coming year, you'll have better clarity on wedding services.

Having said that, as a company, we are not averse to closing down things which are not working very well. However, we definitely feels wedding services is opportunity, we could able to maximize it, and so with that something we feel we are confident of it.

Then come to the regarding investment into the entity, which is more on that the startup, they are into the AI astrology space because the AI making inroads into various categories. This is the startup we found it interesting, and we're investing in that company they are working on the AI astrology.

That's a point number two. When come to AstroTalk, you spoke about, yeah, they are the large player in this category, and the company what we invested in AstroVision is a more of we are using their product and services, and they're one of the early movers in the space, probably they're not really scaled up the way the other astrology company has scaled up.

It's a more of our strategic investment into a product which we are using it also, and while one of the early movers, whatever reason they were not able to scale up. We continue to figure out how to maximize our investment in that astrology space, and we also the Astro free chat the app what we have, we are also offering AI astrology chat using AI.

Leveraging the investment what we made in AstroVision. Some things are happening on astrology space, having said that, yeah, there are large players.

We'll see whether how we can leverage our investment or is it something also trying to explore also.

Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you.

Hello? Am I audible?

Yes, we can hear you. Yes, you are.

Please go ahead.

Yeah. The marketing expenses remain elevated at about 451 million in quarter three of FY '26.

I wanted to understand if there's any scope for operating leverage if billing growth sustained double digits?

Thank you for asking the question. We look at a marketing spend on matrimony business.

It's been continued to kind of go down. From quarter one from 46.7, now it become 43.9.

The marketing spend has come down, and we continue to look at opportunity to optimize our marketing spend. It's on the downward trend, and but obviously we have to still continue to invest because that category is still operating at a increased marketing level.

Having said that, we continue to optimize, continue to reduce the marketing, but some markets, we see the marketing spend little softening. Wherever we see the scope to reduce marketing spend, one end we are able to optimize, other end wherever we see that the softening, we are able to reduce the marketing spend as such.

Definitely marketing spend on the downward trend in the matrimony business.

Got it. Also, I wanted to understand that if billing grows double digit in quarter four, as guided, what is the expected EBITDA margins for FY '27?

The thing is that, while the billing going to grow, but the revenue is still be there is a gap between the billing and revenue. We see the benefits of the increased billings for FY '26, we see start happening because of the one-year package that we introduced the beginning of the year, we get the full benefits happen in quarter one.

The full benefits will happen in quarter one only, while definitely the billing growth happening in quarter four, some increase in revenue will happen, but having said that, full benefit happen only in the quarter one of the coming year.

Got it. That's it from my side.

Thank you.

Good evening, sir. Hello?

Sir? Yes, please go ahead, yeah.

Yeah. In the yearly basis, when you remove other income, hardly net profit is 10 crores only.

You are spending ₹180 crores on advertisements. That is the one question, it's a lot for several years, you are spending 40% or something on advertisement.

Job portal, right, another question is job portal, when it is going to monetize? That's all.

My side, sir.

The marketing spend definitely, as we said, it has come down. We continue to figure out a way to reduce our marketing spend.

Also investing behind the newer opportunities in the matchmaking space. You may know that we launched luv.com, it's a serious relationship app.

Luv.com was not even there one year ago. Now a new product also being launched.

The product has come out very well. The overall marketing spend also include the matrimony business include newer initiatives, which include jodi.com, it also include luv.com.

Some of the initiative we are investing now. The benefits of the investment happen in the following years.

In that way, Jodi already we are monetizing. Luv, it's still in the very early days.

The benefits of luv.com investment happen in the subsequent year. In terms of the job portal, job portal we started monetizing, and currently you may know that it's currently only in Tamil Nadu.

We want to reach a certain scale and size in terms of user base, recruiters, company, and product-wise also we want to continue to improve our product and service. Once we reach a certain level, then we have plans to expand across India.

I don't know when that will happen, probably maybe sometime the coming year, maybe later part of coming financial year. We don't know, but at this point of time, we have certain metrics we want to hit in terms of operating metrics and business metrics.

We started monetizing, the early feedback has been good, over 10,000 recruiters are using it, and a lot of big companies also signed up. We believe we are on the right track, but having said that, still in a very early days, and probably sometime later part of next year, we know where we stand with respect to Many Jobs.

As overall, we believe that there's a product-market fit and there's an opportunity, and we believe and we're going in the right direction.

Hello, sir. Good evening.

I have some couple of questions. First is, sir, post buyback, what is the capital allocation philosophy going forward?

Yeah. Hi.

I think from a capital allocation perspective, we are very clear. Our principles are very focused and disciplined.

In terms of the newer initiatives also, we invest in areas where we feel that we will make good returns when we scale. That is number one.

In terms of the buybacks or future opportunities to give surplus cash to the shareholders, you know that there is a statutory time limit between buybacks, and post that, the board and the shareholders will continue evaluating rewarding the shareholders on a long-term basis.

Sir. Also, I have one more question.

Yes, please,

yeah. Yeah.

Sir, how much of Q3 deferred revenue converts into Q4 earnings visibility?

See, earlier, most of the product used to be, three months three months package. Because of the, introduction of the one-year package in the beginning of the year, the the, if you see that over nine months, almost 20 crore of look at the nine months versus the nine-month comparison, last year the billing versus revenue is almost like In fact, in fact last year, the revenue was more than the billing also because the preceding year revenue.

This year, almost a 20 crore difference between the billing and the revenue. It's a there is some amount of revenue getting pushed, but as I said, when a in a quarter one of the coming year, the FY '27, where we get the full benefit of the one-year package that was introduced in the beginning of the year.

We see that typically around 90% plus of our revenue get pushed to the subsequent quarter. There is certain percentage of revenue depends on the package and all pushed to the entire year actually.

Majority of it is pushed to the next quarter, yeah.

Also, sir, just one more question. Sir, can we see more improvement in our average transaction values, like you have shown a really good growth in your average transaction value, any more room for improvement in that?

We can definitely see that the ATV can continue to get better on account of you see the high-end packages are we are able to make some progress, and also that again the higher value the packages are we are able to make progress on those things, plus also continue figuring a way to increase our ARPU. The combination of these factors, we believe that ATV can continue to can improve.

Sir. Thank you so much, sir.

Hi, sir. Good evening, sir.

Am I audible?

Yes, you are audible,

please. Sir, thank you for the opportunity.

Given the long-term package strategy, should we expect the revenue growth acceleration in FY '27 once the deferred revenue base starts unwinding?

Absolutely, yeah.

Sir, and I had one question on the subscription. The paid subscription declined 4.6% on a year-on-year basis, while the ATV grew around 13.3% on a year-on-year basis.

Is the growth entirely price driven?

No, yeah, definitely the one is about the combination of the high-end packages, plus also one-year packages. It's ATV driven, and also in terms of the volume growth, we expect the volume growth also because of the one-year package is going to come for renewal as well.

Starting quarter one of next year, we possibly see that the volume growth also moving up.

Sir. Okay.

Hello?

Please go on. Hello.

Yeah. Okay.

Is there any risk that continued ATV expansion could eventually impact the subscriber growth elasticity?

No, basically the thing is that the increased ATV on combination of we have the multiple packages, you know that there are personalized services. The personalized services are much higher revenue, be it Elite Matrimony, be it Assisted Service.

In fact, those opportunities are growing at a much better pace compared to the overall growth. The combination of personalized services growth at a better rate compared to the overall growth in the matrimony, and also the combination of one-year package, plus also the other way we are working on to improve that average transaction value within the existing product because so there basically a lot of experiments are happening.

The combination of all these factors, we expect ATV can continue to improve. That's the outlook what we have at this point of time.

Sir, how's the competition is currently right now? Is why we prefer people the consumer prefer Matrimony over all the other competitors, sir?

See, the most of the market, one is about obviously we have the large user base and better than anybody else. Point number two is that in terms of the product and offering, it's the most credible and trustworthy platform.

It's basically the number of people who got married on our service. It's basically combination of user base, product and offerings, service, trust and credibility, and the number of people who got married on our service, which it creates a virtuous cycle, it's more people, more database, more people getting married, the more word-of-mouth publicity that driving more registration.

It's a multiplier, it's a virtuous cycle. That's why the people prefer most of the market because we have the large base, more chance of finding a right life partner, and also we have the compelling product and offering.

Sir. Sir, my one last question: so can you disclose the renewal rate trend over the last four quarters?

We don't disclose the percentage, but one thing that the renewal numbers have started moving up because a few years ago, we had the profile growth impact and that impact our first-time payment. That subsequently impact renewal payment.

Last year, started growing on the first-time payment. We now see the growth happening on renewal as well.

Basically we are once again back on track with respect to the profile growth, and be it a first-time volume, renewal also coming back. All these factors which helps us to continue to grow in the matchmaking business.

The deferred revenue will also contribute to next year the revenue growth. Marketing at a different level.

We expect all these things benefit coming in the next year. We don't share that renewal percentage.

What I'm saying, the renewal numbers started growing.

Sir. Okay.

Understood, sir. Thank you for the opportunity.

All the best for the future.

Thank you.

Hello?

Please.

Am I audible?

Yes, you are. Please.

Yeah. Marriage services billing remain muted and structurally small, what is the long-term strategic intent for this vertical?

We believe there is an opportunity, and we continue to figure out the reason we are not scaling up, investing, and all, we want to get the product-market fit strategy right. We are trying something new.

We are working on strategies, you probably have a better clarity in the coming year. Once you're able to get that thing right, then we will invest and scale up the business.

We definitely believe it's a company had opportunity to make inroad into wedding services. We continue figuring out, but believe we are sort of getting something right.

Let's see in the coming year a better clarity on that wedding services.

Okay. Do we have any break-even road map for this segment?

No, this is a huge opportunity. Rather than break-even, we are looking at, it's a huge opportunity.

We want to make it as a very large business, a few-hundred-crore business. We want to get that product-market fit strategy and execution right.

We definitely feel confident that we could able to execute, to capture the opportunity in front of us. Definitely maybe end of year or something like that, we'll have a better clarity on wedding services road map.

Okay. One last question on the market share: are we gaining any market share, or is the industry recovery-led growth?

Is it recovery-led growth?

I think we continue to remain strong in most of the markets, strong market share, and we continue to making inroads in some markets also, progressing. I'm not getting to specific markets, but I think we have the profile growth are happening, and so we are making inroads in some market as well.

Yeah.

It's

broadly I want to just say that, yeah.

Thank you. Thanks, sir.

Hi. Good evening.

Am I audible?

Yes, please go ahead.

I had a couple of questions. First question is about despite increased ad investments in North India, revenue growth flat peers.

Have you gained measurable market share in North India over the past 2 to 3 years?

We don't get into a market-specific spend as a thing, but definitely North is one of the market we want to make inroads because that's the only market where I believe we have the opportunity to become a leader because rest of the market we are a leader, okay? Only North India, we're not a number one player.

As far as we need to make progress in that, we continue to figure out ways, strategies to penetrate that market. At this point of time, we have very limited investment happening in that market because overall the marketing spend in North India for all the players has come down.

We're not aggressively investing in North India at this point of time.

Sir. My second question is, at what point would you consider structurally reducing ad spend to protect margin?

Spend is depends on one is the market opportunity and also what the competitor also doing. Definitely we see that there is some bit of softening happening on the marketing spend, so that way sort of helped us to optimize our marketing spend.

As you see that quarter-on-quarter, year-on-year, the marketing spend has come down. We believe at this point of time we may be operating at the current level of marketing spend.

Now as we progress, we continue to evaluate if there is opportunity to reduce marketing spend, we'll be reducing marketing spend. I think we believe at this point of time this level of marketing spend may be required, but other expenses may remain at a similar level.

Except, next year some increment, other infra cost may come down a little bit because we're leveraging AI to optimize. We're looking at AI to improve efficiency.

We also look at AI to optimize cost. While there is some increase on CapEx on account of AI may happen, but that'll be reduction in some cost.

We believe that matchmaking broadly may operate at this level for the coming year. Unless otherwise something changes that may warrant us to probably invest more.

At this point of time, we don't see that's happening. We believe that we are at a stage where we believe that the matchmaking can continue with this level of operating expense.

Sir. My third question is about is the business model inherently dependent on high recurring brand spend, or is there scope for a more organic acquisition-led model?

A lot of our acquisition are organic, it's a very large part of our acquisition organic. However, you know that Google is a gateway to the organic traffic, it's not that go to organic, still you have to pay money to Google to get the organic traffic.

It's a just something which are forced to invest behind the Google platform because otherwise we don't invest behind your brand, then there is a chance of that the other ads is shown up and all that. I think the brand it is strong brand and strong recall value.

Most of the acquisitions are happening through the platform like Google, obviously we have to invest money on those platforms. If there is a scope to optimize the spend on account of how the competitors are spending or how the market the behaving, with top-of-the-funnel advertisement, be it TV, other things, if there is scope to reduce, we may reduce it also.

That's why we see that the marketing spend did come down.

Sir. One last question: if industry advertising rationalizes further, what is the incremental margin upside potential?

Sorry, I missed the last part. Can you please repeat again that?

I'll repeat my question: if industry advertising rationalizes further, what is the incremental margin upside potential?

I think see, when that we believe that we could able to operate at current level of marketing expenses for matrimony business fairly in the coming years. That being the case, the incremental revenue largely can flow into the operating margin.

It'll flow into the bottom line.

Sir. That's it from my side.

Hello, am I audible?

Yes, Akash, please go ahead.

Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity.

Actually, I just wanted to ask you, what is the internal capital allocation discipline for new initiatives, and when do we expect break-even?

See, we are not looking at break-even at this point of time. Today, we're looking at, because we want to get the, we are looking at all these opportunities, be it wedding services, or be it Many Jobs.

All these opportunity we are definitely looking at 100-plus-crore revenue or larger also. Basically, for us, we want to get to the level where you feel that you are confident enough to invest and scale up further.

Definitely, as I told Many Jobs, we already crossed 1 million downloads, and we are 10,000 recruiters in Tamil Nadu. We want to reach certain level of usage and renewal and certain benchmark before we decide to take it across Tamil Nadu, then it can be a large business.

Same with wedding services, while they're continuing investing, we believe that we are changing the model, we believe the current model which we are trying now can have a potential. Once we believe that, okay, yeah, this is the model work really well, this is the model we want to invest, it's a more of scaling the business to a large business and capture the opportunity.

Not we are looking at hey let's make 5 crore every month and make it a break-even. That's not what we are looking at.

We want to create these individual opportunities a much larger opportunity, at least a minimum of 100, 200, or even much larger also. We are looking at achieving profitability at that level, not at a few-crore level you're looking at trying to make a break-even.

The reason not investing, because so far we didn't get that thing. As we speak, we believe that wedding services, we are working on a model, we believe that model can be scaled up.

Again, it's a couple of more quarters, once we have that comfort, then we will come back to you. In terms of Many Jobs, as I told you, probably sometime coming financial year, based on how the things are happening, we may scale up to across India.

That point of time, we may invest further also.

Hello? Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Sir. That was the only question I had, sir.

Thank you, sir.

Hello. Am I audible?

Yes, please.

Thanks for your opportunity. I have just one question that what is your long-term strategy in terms of maximize paid subscriber base or a maximize monetization per user?

It's a combination of both, it's not one at the cost of other. We're trying to do both.

Both try to increase the conversion percentage monetization, and also try to get at the best possible ARPU. Basically offering the right package to the customer.

We try to do both.

Okay. Second question I have is several initiatives were launched: luv.com, Many Jobs, wedding loans, and Astro chat, but wedding loans have been paused.

What is the internal hurdle rate for these experiments?

Basically, we know some of the experiment we want to do for a long time. Wedding loan, what we saw was that while we able to generate a lot of inquiries, but the leads were not converting.

We believe that at this point of time, we didn't want to focus on opportunity which are not yielding the expected result. We decided to pause, stop that initiative.

We are focusing on other initiatives. Where we believe that, luv.com is a long term because it's a we believe that there's a segment of users who prefer a sort of serious relationship.

That's a small segment that, but we didn't want to miss out on that opportunity, keeping long-term interests of Matrimony.com. That the product has come out well, I think we are with that one we are covering the entire spectrum of offerings in the matrimony and matchmaking space.

Astro free chat a more of experiment. We say the AI is happening, why don't we have a AI-based free chat?

It's a more of experiment. We know the coming year whether it goes, accordingly we decide what to be done.

That's it from my side. Thank you.

Hello, am I audible?

Yes, please go ahead.

I had a follow-up question on competitive intensity. If it's leading to higher customer acquisition cost?

In terms of there are two things: one is the top-of-the-funnel advertisement, then the bottom-of-the-funnel advertisement spend. If that the top-of-the-funnel advertisement increases, some market we are also need to step up to ensure that the long-term interests are protected.

At this point of time, the way we see that is that the market may continue may operate at similar level, or there's a possibility it may further softening. That's the way we see at this point of time.

Sometimes the things changes, accordingly we have to probably maybe step up also, but at this point of time I don't see. We believe that at the similar level of marketing maybe good enough to continue with our growth strategies.

We believe that around 43 or 45 crore or 44 crore may be good enough for matrimony business at this point of time. That's what we foresee at this point of time.

Again, depending on tomorrow there's something happened, probably may have to step up, but at this point of time we see that it's sort of going to operate at this level for matrimony. The competitive intensity, obviously if the spend increases, that can be increased in the cost of acquisition.

Also should we expect a sustainable double-digit billing growth over FY '26-'27, or is this a recovery-led growth?

I think we feel we can have that sort of similar level of growth in the coming year as well, because as I said, we started all the thing, first-time payment, renewal also started growing, personal service also growing, the combination of all these factors, we believe we could have that the growth momentum to continue for FY '26 and '27 as well.

Got it. That's it from my side.

In the balance sheet, ₹348 crores, after buyback 348 or what is that? Hello?

Yeah. That 348 will reduce by 58 crores, and the operational surplus will get added during the quarter.

Once the regulatory formalities are done, and the amount is transferred to the eligible shareholders, that'll get reduced from the closing balance of the investment.

One more thing, sir: instead of buyback, acquiring the new verticals and all Recently, CarTrade has bought by OLX, after that, accelerated, right, profits. Mr.

Murugavel, can you answer on this? Because say only net profit is hardly 10 crores, if you remove other income and all.

The thing is that, as this year there's also the difference between the billing and the gap revenue. Next year, we see the profit from starting quarter one of coming year, when we started getting the benefits of the billing and the revenue moving up on account of that one-year package, the profit also will move up.

I think quarter one of next year where we see that the benefits of that the one-year package fully getting realized, and the continued growth happening on the billing also reflects in that quarter four also reflected in quarter one. For the next year, we expect that profit will be definitely better on account of the one-time issue thing what happened, introduction of one-year package.

In terms of as an organization, what we've been doing, how to reward the shareholders, one is about be it a buyback or dividend. We also look at opportunity to invest and all.

Last year we invested in a company called AI astrology. We continue to evaluate those opportunities.

These are some of the areas we continue to strengthen also. At this point of time, we focus on growing our core business and then making the newer initiatives, the product-market fit side.

I think once you reach certain level of confidence on the new initiatives, once the profit moves up to certain level, probably ability to accelerate in some of these investment opportunity also may get better.

Thank you so much for participating and appreciate your support, and we'll see you again in the next quarter. Thank you so much.

Have a nice evening.