Quikr Acquires On Demand Home Service Platform Zimmber

Online classifieds platform Quikr has acquired on-demand home services startup Zimmber. The acquisition was an all-stock deal valued at about $10 Mn, as per a Mint report.

With this acquisition, unicorn Quikr aims to accelerate its growth in household services and continue to progress towards its goal of organising this fragmented category. On the other hand, Zimmber will benefit from the synergies it has with QuikrServices and other Quikr verticals and also enter newer markets.

Founded in 2014 by Anubhab Goel, Gaurav Shrivastava and Amit Kumar, Zimmber is an online platform that provides on-demand home services to the users. The services include plumbing, carpentry, pest control, deep cleaning, sofa and carpet cleaning, etc. As per a company statement, Zimmber has on-boarded about 1,500 service providers on the platform till date and served over 1 Lakh customers.

It currently provides services in Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, and Delhi-NCR. In July 2015, it had raised $2 Mn (about INR 12.8 Cr) from IDG ventures, Omidyar Network, Sherpalo Ventures and TV Mohandas Pai. Prior to that, it had raised $400K from Naveen Tewari and others.

Zimmber acquired Gurugram-based FindYahan for an undisclosed amount, in a cash and stock deal in February 2016. Prior to that in 2015, it acquired Mumbai-based laundry service Dhulai.

Amit Kumar, co-founder of Zimmber said, “In addition to the synergies between Zimmber and QuikrServices, we also see a great opportunity in offering our services to users in other Quikr verticals such as QuikrHomes, QuikrC2C, and QuikrCars. Together, we will be serving a larger customer base with varied demands to bring more trust and efficiency to hyperlocal services market.”

With this move, Zimmber will continue serving all its on-demand service customers. Also, Amit Kumar, co-founder & COO, and another founding member Siddhartha Srivastava, CPO along with the Zimmber team will continue to operate Zimmber under Quikr umbrella. The other founders will move on to pursue their interests.

The Quikr Story

Founded by Pranay Chulet in 2008, Quikr claims to have over 30 Mn users a month. It is present in 1,200+ cities in India and operates several large classifieds businesses across C2C, cars, education, homes, jobs, and services.

The last round of funding was raised in August 2016, where it secured $19.4 Mn (INR 130 Cr) in a debt financing round led by Brand Capital, the private equity arm of media company Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd (BCCL). Quikr’s investors include Tiger Global Management, Kinnevik, Warburg Pincus, Matrix Partners India, Norwest Venture Partners, Nokia Growth Partners, Steadview Capital and Omidyar Network.

Talking about the acquisition of Zimmber, PD Sundar, Head of QuikrServices said: “The acquisition allows us to further scale our deep stack service capabilities and provide a superior service experience to Quikr users for their high-frequency daily needs such as plumbing, cleaning etc. This category perfectly complements our existing marketplace solution for one-off service needs such as interior design, packers and movers etc.”

Quikr has been on an expansion spree since the last one year. In January 2016, Quikr acquired online realty portal CommonFloor in a stock-and-cash deal for $200 Mn. Following that, in March, it launched Quikr Doorstep for C2C buying and selling of pre-owned goods.

In July, the company acquired Bengaluru-based online recruitment firm Hiree for an undisclosed amount. The company also acquired Stepni in September 2016, thereby integrating Stepni’s entire team into QuikrCars. In November 2016 the real estate arm of Quikr, QuikrHomes, acquired Bengaluru-based home rental marketplace Grabhouse.

Quikr launched its on-demand beauty service ‘AtHomeDiva’ within its QuikrServices category in July 2016. To bolster the space, the company acquired in-home beauty service provider, Salosa in May, on-demand beauty, wellness, and fitness app ZapLuk in August, and mobile marketplace for beauty services, StayGlad in September.

In September 2016, it also launched Dazzlr, a talent discovery platform that aims at bringing together actors, casting professionals, directors and producers.

In October 2016, Quikr got a 13% hike in its valuation from one of its investors, Kinnevik AB. In its latest quarterly report, the Swedish investment firm valued its 18% stake in Quikr at $265 Mn, increasing the unicorn’s total valuation to $1.47 Bn.

As per Inc42 Datalabs, over 400 startups entered the hyperlocal market from 2011 to 2016. Out of these, about 193 were funded and raised more than $1 Bn funding in total and 100+ shut down. Startups competing in this segment include Gurugram-based mobile services marketplace UrbanClap that raised about $3.1 Mn (INR 20 Cr) in venture debt from Trifecta Capital through non-convertible debentures in April 2017. Other competitors include Housejoy, Localoye, Qyk, etc.