Flipkart-owned online fashion retailer Myntra wants to be profitable by 2018. The company’s revenue has grown 80% year on year and it is on track to achieve $1 billion in gross sales by the end of FY17, a top company executive said.

“In the next year we want to double our revenue to $2 billion. We are also set to achieve profitability in the financial year 2018,” Ananth Narayanan, the chief executive officer of Myntra, said.

The fashion retailer was already profitable at an operational level at the end of June 2016, according to sources. Turning Myntra profitable at an EBITDA (earnings, before interest expenses, taxes, depreciation and amortization) level was the 12-18 months goal set by the company at the time.

The fashion retailer’s performance is one of the few things working for Flipkart, its parent company working against a stagnating e-commerce market and aggressive rival Amazon. Filpkart, which is India’s most valuable internet business now, has seen successive markdowns in its valuation and senior level exits in the recent past. The latest in a series of markdowns was by Morgan Stanley. Flipkart’s chief technology officer Peeyush Ranjan and head of private labels Mausam Bhatt quit the company last month.

In an interview with FactorDaily, newly appointed chief technology officer of Myntra, Ajit Narayanan said that the company wants to focus on building a conversational interface, look at new technologies like virtual reality and find new modes of shopping. Shamik Sharma, who was chief technology officer at Myntra, has quit the company.

“There will be dramatic changes in our tech approach, watch out. We have barely touched the surface,” added chief technology officer Narayanan. The company will invest on artificial intelligence to help drive product discovery and assisted buying, he said.

The technology team in Bengaluru is also working on learning more about consumer behaviour at the payment gateway level to improve transaction rate. Currently, 35-40% of transactions do not go through because of problems at payment level, he said. The idea is to take it to less than 30%.

Myntra had acquired Jabong in July for $70 million. The two used to compete for customers by giving discounts to shoppers. The acquisition helps Myntra cut discount and inch closer to profitability.

Between Jabong and Myntra, the company currently has nearly 18 million monthly shoppers with over 200 brands selling to consumers.

Also read: Project Fixkart (Part Deux)

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