Attracting multiple rounds of funding is surely one of the filters which will signal a successful startup. Moreover, by bringing on board a top tier private equity firm to the mix of investors, Pranay Chulet, the founder & CEO of Quikr.com, has hit pay dirt. For the IIT Delhi-IIM Calcutta passout, Quikr is his second venture after the web education startup Excellere.com.
The online classifieds startup, which faces quite a few competitors such as Craigslist and claims over 26 million visitors a month, draws its business from online ads, premium listing and lead generation. The firm raised around $50 million in five rounds of funding over the past four years. And the most recent one was worth $32 million, led by Warburg Pincus that joined a list of existing VC investors. However, Quikr’s most integral investor is eBay who has played a key role in shaping up the business model.
Both Quikr and its investors are betting long term on India’s growing internet and mobile adoption, and the target is to grow the company five times its current size in the next three years. Techcircle.in caught up with Pranay Chulet in a video interaction to discuss what the company’s next phase of growth would be and what his targets are for 2015.
