Quikr Mauritius Holding Pvt Ltd, the parent company of Quikr India Pvt Ltd which runs online classifieds site Quikr.com, has secured $60 million in fresh round of funding led by Tiger Global Management. The round also saw participations from its existing investors, including Matrix Partners India, Nokia Growth Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Omidyar Network, Warburg Pincus and eBay Inc, besides Swedish investment firm Investment AB Kinnevik. Kinnevik said in a separate disclosure that it infused $15 million this time around.
The capital from the latest round will be used to invest in product development as well as to further expand its mobile business.
“The explosive growth in mobile internet is fundamentally reshaping the Indian classified internet market, and we are well positioned to be at the forefront of this growth,†said Pranay Chulet, founder and CEO of Quikr.
“This funding round is a powerful validation of our local knowledge and connections, skilled execution and quality management team,†he added.
With this deal, the total funding raised by Quikr stands at around $200 million.
The latest round comes just five months after the firm announced a $90 million funding round led by Kinnevik. This funding valued the firm at around $240 million.
Quikr had previously raised $32 million in its fifth round of funding in May 2012, led by private equity firm Warburg Pincus with participation of existing investors Matrix Partners India, Norwest Venture Partners and eBay Inc. It had earlier raised $8 million in its fourth round of funding, led by Nokia Growth Partners and returning investors Norwest Venture Partners and eBay Inc.
In April 2010, the horizontal classifieds player raised $6 million in Series C, led by Norwest Venture Partners, besides Omidyar Network, Matrix Partners India and eBay Inc. In July 2009, the company raised around Rs 20 crore in Series B, led by Omidyar Network, and with commitment from Series A investor Matrix Partners.
Founded in 2008 by Chulet and Jiby Thomas, Quikr was originally started as Kijiji India. The firm later rebranded to Quikr. It is a large scale cross-category classifieds business with over 30 million consumers. These consumers come to Quikr to sell, buy, rent or find products and services in a variety of categories such as electronics and household goods, real estate, cars, bikes, jobs and services. The firm claims that small businesses across 940 cities are using the site.
In July last year, its co-founder Thomas quit the firm to launch a digital marketing company called Web Butter Jam.
Earlier this year, Quikr had launched a pricing guide for pre-owned goods, whereby sellers can determine a value for their used goods before posting an ad for these items on Quikr.com.
Quikr is largely competing with OLX, a Naspers Group firm.
In an interview soon after the previous funding round, Chulet told with Techcircle.in that the firm had around half a million small merchants and 30 million consumers using the platform. He had also informed that Quikr’s revenue had grown five times over the past 12 months.
“Quikr has grown rapidly to become one of India’s major classifieds players with a deep understanding of the local market,†said Lee Fixel, partner at Tiger Global. “By leveraging the company’s strengths as a local player, Quikr has seized a tremendous opportunity in a rapidly growing market.â€
"Kinnevik has been delighted with the progress at Quikr since our original investment earlier this year. Like-for-like page views and approved listings have nearly doubled in a short period of time, and the strategic focus on quality of content is enhancing user experience. Our investments in brand marketing, together with product updates, have resulted in enhanced engagement," said Lorenzo Grabau, CEO of Kinnevik.
Mumbai-based Avendus Capital advised Quikr on the latest transaction.
