Investment firm Kinnevik raises Quikr valuation

Bengaluru: While several Indian startups in recent times have seen their valuations being marked down by mutual funds holding shares of those firms, online classifieds firm Quikr’s valuation has been raised to $1.47 billion by one of its investors,

Kinnevik

, in its latest quarterly report. The company’s last quarterly report had valued Quikr at $1.3 billion, implying that Quikr has created an additional value of $170 million in three months.

Kinnevik AB, a Swedish investment firm, also noted that Quikr had a strong third quarter for cash collections, continuing a trend of revenue growth across its five verticals. Quikr has been strengthening its verticals like real estate, jobs and on-demand beauty services with acquisitions and investments. It has acquired five companies in the past six months.

“The company made a number of bolt-on acquisitions during the quarter that enhance its strategic positioning and product offering – these include platforms offering jobs, vehicle maintenance services and on-demand beauty services," Kinnevik said in the report. The firm has valued its 18% stake in Quikr at $265 million. Quikr was valued at around $1 billion when it raised $150 million in April 2015. Kinnevik, which invested $100 million, and New York-based hedge fund Tiger Global were the lead investors. The valuation of Kinnevik's shares in Quikr was based on the value implied by cash transactions made in secondary Quikr shares with various preferential rights, the report said. Quikr’s valuation rose to $1.2 billion early this year when it acquired online real estate services firm Commonfloor for around $100 million in share swap deal. It also raised Rs 130 crore in August this year from BCCL's Brand Capital. BCCL owns The Times of India.

Quikr, founded by Pranay Chulet and Jiby Thomas in 2008, has so far raised $346 million from investors including Warburg Pincus, Tiger Global Management, Matrix Partners India, Norwest Venture Partners, Omidyar Network and others. "Quikr’s platform generated 9.1 million responses in September 2016. Responses per listing increased by 110% compared to the same period last year,” the Kinnevik report said. Quikr is used by over 30 million unique users a month and is present in 1,000 cities in India. It employs around 1,500 employees.