Classifieds site Quikr, which raised $90 million in a fresh funding round in March this year, was valued at $240 million, according to its Swedish investor Investment AB Kinnevik.
Kinnevik, which owns 16 per cent in Quikr, had led the last round. It was joined by existing investors Warburg Pincus, eBay, Omidyar Network, Matrix Partners India, Nokia Growth Partners and Norwest Venture Partners.
When contacted, Pranay Chulet, founder and CEO of Quikr, said, “I think it is old and dated information. Hopefully, we are several times bigger (than this valuation).â€
Indeed, valuations of new gen technology companies are changing every month; so the current valuation of Quikr could easily be higher.
Earlier some media reports had said the funding has valued Quikr at over $250 million.
With the last round, Quikr has raised around $140 million, according to VCCEdge, the data research platform of VCCircle.
In an interview soon after the 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.
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.
Kinnevik is a growth markets-focused investment firm, which has invested in e-commerce, media and financial services firms across India, Russia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Ghana. These investments include Rocket Internet and its portfolio companies including Indian fashion apparel e-tailer Jabong, Zalora and Zando.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
