Quikr to acquire Zefo

Online classifieds marketplace, Quikr is reportedly in talks to acquire Gurugram based used goods marketplace Zefo, for approximately $28.5 Million in an all-stock deal. Following the acquisition, Sequoia-backed Zefo will reportedly continue to operate as a separate entity.

Zefo was founded in 2015 manages its end-to-end operations, including product refurbishment and repairs of its sold products, in order to ensure a higher degree of standardization. In 2017, Zefo had raised $9.2 Mn (INR 60 Cr) in Series B funding. The round was led by prolific investors such as Sequoia India, Helion Venture Partners and Singapore-headquartered VC fund Beenext.

Founded in 2008, Bengaluru-based Quikr has followed an acquisition strategy to strengthen its various businesses and has acquired 14 startups till date including HDFC Developers, Commonfloor, Babajob, Hiree, Zimmber, and ZapLuk.

Quikr, which competes with OLX, Quikr and eBay, already hosts refurbished products advertisements on its platform but it does not offer repairs or delivery of the refurbished goods. The platform simply connects the buyer and seller, who then schedule the product pickup and payment among themselves.

Quikr acquires India Property

Online classifieds platform Quikr has acquired Chennai based startup India Property Online Private Limited, a real estate platform, for an undisclosed amount.

The acquisition signals Quikr’s strategy to build the transaction business on top of classifieds. The company has sought to grow through acquisitions since 2015 and has acquired 14 companies so far across categories. The Tiger Global-backed Quikr operates in segments such as real estate, auto, jobs, goods and services.

Founded in 2012, India Property offers in-depth information on property buying, selling and renting. The platform lists more than 6 lakh properties and 8,000 verified builder projects across 15 cities in India. It enables property search, diligence, financing, and transactions.

The startup backed by venture capital fund Bertelsmann India Investments and Mayfield has also built an analytics platform using street-level transaction data for residential properties and covers 5 million properties in south India. Till date, the company had raised $19 million cumulatively. Quikr operates two models in the real estate segment -- a co-living rental business and brokerage business for home buying.

TVS Group acquires CheckGaadi.com

TVS & Sons Group has acquired Bengaluru headquartered CheckGaadi.com, a provider of vehicle inspection technology and CRM solutions. CheckGaadi was founded in January 2015. The startup provides hassle free “vehicle inspection services” for 2-wheelers and 4-wheelers vehicles. It also provides bike-servicing on its platform.

With this move, proprietary technology of CheckGaadi will be transferred to TVS. It will continue business operations as part of TVS. CheckGaadi scaled up to a team size of 30 across 11 major cities serving close to 75,000 customers till date. The CheckGaadi customer engagement solution relies on predictive analytics and machine learning algorithms.

It makes use of vehicle health information to make predictions about its future and automatically determines the best time and context to connect with the customer. On the other hand, the TVS Group is a leading supplier of automotive components. The automobile market in India is pegged at $125 Billion. Out of which, $100 Billion is the estimated share of automobile sale and remaining $25 Billion including services. It is expected to grow at a rate of about 10% to a whopping $225 Billion by 2020.

In May 2017, Mumbai-based online automobile classifieds platform, CarTrade’s parent company MXC Solutions, acquired vehicle inspection and valuation venture Adroit Inspection in an all-cash deal. In June 2017, Gurugram - based used car marketplace Spinny raised $1 Mn Seed funding led by Blume Ventures, Indian Angel Network, and FreeCharge. Other startups that work in this segment apart from CheckGaadi include Droom, CarWale, MahindraFirstChoice, Carnation, CarDekho, CarTrade, along with some classifieds players such as Quikr and OLX.

NestAway Technologies acquires Zenify

Home rental startup NestAway Technologies Pvt. Ltd has acquired smaller rival Zenify (City Synapse Information Pvt. Ltd) for an undisclosed amount, a move that will help NestAway expand its offerings for families. Zenify will continue to operate as a separate entity after the acquisition.

NestAway manages a homeowner’s rental property throughout the rental life cycle, from showing the house to a prospective tenant and closing the rental agreement to collecting rent on the owner’s behalf and assisting the tenant and owner during move-out. The company charges a certain percentage of the monthly rent it generates from the house as commission.

The company, founded in 2015, started out as an aggregator of shared, furnished apartments for bachelors, before adding full homes for families. It claims to manage more than 10,000 homes in Bangalore, Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Ghaziabad, Hyderabad, Pune and Mumbai. The company’s investors include Tiger Global Management and IDG Ventures.

According to data platform Crunchbase, NestAway has so far raised $43 million from Tiger Global, IDG Ventures India, Flipkart Ltd. The company has also raised about $5-6 million in venture debt from InnoVen Capital. Its last equity finance, a $30-million Series C round, came in April last year. According to data from research firm Tofler, NestAway clocked revenue of Rs5.8 crore for the year ended 31 March 2016 while losses stood at Rs37 crore. Following the acquisition of Zenify, NestAway will have more than 4,000 homes on offer for families. The segment has also witnessed consolidation in the recent past. For instance, Quikr acquired Grabhouse in an all-stock deal for about $10 million in November last year.

Quikr Acquires Stepni

Online classifieds platform Quikr India Pvt. Ltd has acquired Stepni, a Bengaluru based start-up that connects vehicle owners with service providers for an undisclosed amount. Quikr has been driving a verticalization exercise, under which the company is focusing on five key business segments – automobiles, real estate, jobs, services, and customer-to-customer sales.

The acquisition of Stepni is expected to help Quikr strengthen car-related services under the QuikrCars vertical, as well as boost its services business, QuikrServices. Stepni, founded in October 2015, claims to have a network of more than 125 service centres across Bangalore. As a classified portal, Quikr has just one rival, OLX, which is backed by Naspers Ltd, a South African Mass media company.

In car segment, Quikr competes with the likes of Warburg Pincus backed CarTrade, which has so far raised at least $185 Million from investors, and CarDekho, which has raised at least $90 Million from Sequoia Capital and Google Capital. The real estate segment has businesses such as Housing, Magicbricks, PropTiger and others. Similarly, the Hyperlocal services segment has deep pocketed start-ups such as Housejoy and UrbanClap, while in the jobs category, the likes of Babajob and Aassan Jobs compete with Quikr.

Quikr is growing beyond a listing platform to a one-stop shop for used goods by enabling payments on its platform, as well as facilitating logistics, a move likely to throw open additional revenue channels at a time when a slowdown in external funding is prompting start-ups to reduce cash burn and focus on profitability. The company has been investing aggressively to build the five verticals by both acquiring companies and making strategic investments.

Quikr acquires Hiree

Online classified company Quikr India Pvt. Ltd has acquired Bengaluru based online recruitment platform Hiree (Abhiman Technologies Pvt. Ltd) for an undisclosed amount in an attempt to bolster its job listings business, Quikr Jobs.

Following the acquisition, Hiree will merge with Quikr and the Hiree team will be adsorbed into Quikr. The combined entity will have more than 4 Million active jobseekers. Hiree was founded in May 2013 and connected potential jobseekers serving notice periods with prospective employers in an attempt to fast track the recruitment process by enlisting active jobseekers.

In May 2015, the company rebranded itself as Hiree and allowed listings by all categories of jobseekers in an attempt to increase its target audience. The company had raised INR 20 crore from IDG Ventures and a clutch of angel investors. However, the company had a bumpy ride as overall hiring, especially by startups, slowed down after startups scaled back to conserve cash and started focusing on streamlining their operations with the existing workforce following a slowdown in investments.

As a classified portal, Quikr has just one rival, OLX, which is backed by Naspers Ltd, a South African mass media company. Tiger Global Management backed Quikr which has so far raised about $346 Million from venture capital firms has been investing aggressively to build these verticals by both acquiring companies and making strategic investments. In May, Quikr acquired Gurgaon based home beauty services provider Salosa for an undisclosed amount to bolster its home services business.

Quikr buys beauty service provider Salosa

Online classified portal Quikr India Pvt. Ltd has acquired on-demand beauty service provider Salosa, owned by Beawel Tech Pvt. Ltd for an undisclosed amount in a move that will help the Tiger Global Management backed company penetrate deeper into the home services segment.

Salosa, founded in September 2015, currently operates in Gurgaon and parts of Delhi with a team of in-house beauticians. The beauty services market is close to $5 Billion in India and growing, which is evident from the increasing number of requests from Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities. On demand beauty service is an important sub-category and Salosa will help bring very real benefits to consumers.

Quikr had earlier committed an investment of INR 250 crore to strengthen its home services vertical. QuikrServices has 250,000 service providers who offer more than 80 services for consumers and has about 100,000 daily customers. Quikr is growing beyond a listing platform to a one-stop shop for used goods by enabling payments on its platform, as well as facilitating logistics.

Quikr is focusing on five key business segments such as automobiles, real estate, jobs, services and customer to customer sales. It has identified a new source of revenue and fends off competition from other revenue capital backed businesses that have emerged in each of these categories. As a classified portal, Quikr has just one rival OLX, which is backed by Naspers Ltd, a South African mass media company.

Quikr acquires RealtyCompass

Online classifieds website Quikr India Pvt. Ltd acquired real estate analytics firm Blitzkrieg Technology Pvt. Ltd which operates under the name RealtyCompass for an undisclosed sum. This is the second acquisition by the company in the sector. It acquired Indian Realty Exchange (IRX) an aggregator of real estate agents.

It also made a strategic investment in AN Virtual world Tech Ltd, a hyper-local search engine providing street views. The latest acquisition will help QuikrHomes access technology built by RealtyCompass that helps consumers and investors in their decision making process by providing builder ratings and detailed project analysis. As part of its growth strategy, Quikr has been focusing on automobiles, jobs, services and customer to customer sales.

The size of Real estate sector is expected to reach $853 Billion by 2028 and its contribution to India’s gross domestic product will be 13%. While Quikr competes with Naspers backed OLX in the classified business, its competitors in the real estate sector are Housing.com, PropTiger Realty India Pvt. Ltd, Magicbricks Realty Services Ltd and 99 Acres.

Softbank backed Housing.com which started off as a listing website and now enables users to buy and sell properties online, acquired risk assessment company Realty Business Intelligence for Rs. 10 Crore in cash in June and Indian Real Estate Forum in March. PropTiger also acquired Makaan.com in April. QuikrHomes currently connects customers from more than 1000 cities and towns across India and it helps conclude more than 200,000 transactions a month.

Quikr to acquire CommonFloor

Online classified portal Quikr India Pvt. Ltd is in the final stage of discussions to buy real estate portal CommonFloor.com in a share swap deal. The valuation is expected to be in the range of $120 Million to $200 Million.

CommonFloor owned by maxHeap Technologies, in January raised an undisclosed amount from Google Inc. venture arm Google Capital in a deal that valued the company at around $200 Million. The other investor in CommonFloor is Accel Partners. Tiger Global, which has over the past one year, invested in scores of big and small Indian Startups is currently in the process of pulling back from big ticket investments.

Tiger Global is re-allocating its investments to stronger companies in its portfolio, including Quikr which is in process of realigning its business, creating new business verticals across real estates, automobiles and jobs, among others. Quikr has so far raised $346 Million from investors such as Investment AB Kinnevik Tiger Global, Steadview Capital Management and Matrix Partners India.

CommonFloor has so far raised more than $60 Million from Accel Partners, Tiger Global and Google Capital over multiple rounds. According to some investors, the sector saw a churn after Softbank backed Housing.com owned by Locon Solutions Pvt. Ltd, raised large amount of Capital and invested heavily in marketing and advertising, pushing other companies to follow suit.

Quikr Buys Indian Realty Exchange

Online classifieds portal Quikr India Pvt. Ltd had acquired Indian Realty Exchange (IRX, incorporated as 123 Startup Ventures Pvt. Ltd) a real estate agent aggregator, for an undisclosed amount to strengthen its real estate vertical QuikrHomes.

With its latest round of funding ($60 Million) in September, Quikr strengthened its push in five business segments automobiles, real estate, jobs, services and customer-to-customer sales to explore new sources of revenue. These five categories account for about 90% of the 10 Million listings of platform. This acquisition will allow it to gain access to real estate agents.

QuikrHomes currently has customers in 1000 cities and towns across India and concludes 200,000 transactions per month. IRX helps users connect to the agents for buying and selling property, and updates listings with locations in real time and features agent reviews, rankings, trust networks and a chat platform for agents to exchange inventory and requirements with users and other agents.

Quikr has received funding of around $200 Million since its inception in 2008, and counts Tiger Global Management, Kinnevik, Matrix Partners India, Nokia Growth Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Omidyar Network, Warburg Pincus, and eBay as its investors. QuikrHomes enters into competition with CommonFloor, Housing.com, PropTiger, NoBroker, and Magic Bricks.