Quikr India Pvt. Ltd has acquired Bengaluru-based Zefo in a deal that will help Sequoia Capital and other venture capital investors of the used-goods marketplace make an exit.
The deal will help Quikr expand its Quikr Assured vertical for pre-owned products that it had launched last year, the company said in a statement. The deal is in line with its strategy of going deeper in key verticals, it added.
It didn’t disclose any financial details.
“With Quikr and Zefo as a combined entity, we will be able to offer a broader selection of products at even more competitive prices along with as strong a focus on quality,” said Pranay Chulet, founder and CEO of Quikr.
This is Quikr’s first acquisition in the used-goods category and adds to the dozen-odd deals it has struck across verticals over the past few years. In December 2018, for instance, Quikr acquired India Property Online Pvt. Ltd. Previously, it bought HDFC Developers and HDFC Realty as well as CommonFloor. These deals were aimed at expanding the real estate vertical.
In May 2017, the company struck two acquisitions, Babajobs Services Pvt. Ltd and Rejuvenate Solutions Pvt. Ltd, to grow its jobs and home services businesses.
Founded in 2008, Quikr has so far raised $350 million from investors such as Tiger Global Management, Kinnevik AB, Warburg Pincus, Matrix Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, eBay, Nokia Growth Partners and Omidyar Network. It last raised $150 million in early 2015 from Kinnevik, Tiger Global and Steadview Capital at a post-money valuation of nearly $1 billion.
Bengaluru-based Zero Effort Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which operates GoZefo.com, was founded by Rohit Ramasubramanian, Arjit Gupta, Karan Gupta and Himesh Joshi in 2015.
The startup operates in Bengaluru, Mysore, Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida and Mumbai. It offers used goods in categories such as televisions, refrigerators, washing machines and microwave ovens, and furniture products including beds, sofas and dining tables.
“With this transaction, the capabilities we have built and the offerings we have honed can now be offered to Quikr’s large customer base,” said Ramasubramanian, who is also the CEO of the company.
The company has raised close to $20 million from investors such as Helion Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Beenext. In its most recent funding round in December 2018, it had raised around Rs 21 crore ($3 million) from New York-based FJ Labs, Sequoia and Helion.
