Quikr appoints a CFO for the first time in its decade-long existence

Online classifieds platform Quikr India Pvt. Ltd has appointed Rahul Tewari as its chief financial officer (CFO), the company said in a blog.

This is the unicorn’s first-ever CFO-level appointment. Before Tewari's appointment, vice president of finance was the highest designation for the Bengaluru-based firm's financial operations. 

Rajesh Warrier, the current VP of finance, will be reporting to Tewari.

An Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi graduate, Tewari has previously worked with Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and Royal Bank of Canada. He has covered large-cap and high-growth companies and advised businesses on equity, debt, and mergers & acquisitions.

“He [Tewari] joins us at a time when our strategy of building transactional marketplaces focused on large verticals has been strongly validated and our competitive position is getting more dominant every quarter,” said Pranay Chulet, chief executive and founder of Quikr. 

The senior-level appointment comes months after Quikr's chief technology officer Manoj Sharma moved to travel startup Cleartrip. 

Quikr

Founded in 2008 by Pranay Chulet and Jiby Thomas, Quikr has thus far raised around $350 million in funding and is among India’s leading internet companies. .

Quikr’s investors include marquee names such as Tiger Global, Kinnevik AB, eBay, Omidyar Network and Warburg Pincus.

Quikr is India’s second-smallest unicorn by revenues, only ahead of messaging app Hike – which has no revenues to show. 

The company posted a 55% rise in turnover for the financial year 2016-17, according to Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) filings. 

The company’s net sales increased from Rs 41.24 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 63.7 crore the following year. The revenue figure did not include numbers from group companies and further details are not available as the company has not filed a detailed summary of its financials.

The company has adopted an aggressive strategy of buying small digital startups to expand into verticals such as real estate, jobs, automobiles and services. It has made at least 11 acquisitions till date.

In December, Quikr agreed to buy real estate brokerage firm HDFC Realty Ltd and HDFC Developers Ltd, which runs an online classifieds platform, in a stock deal worth Rs 357 crore ($56 million).

Quikr competes with OLX – backed by South African internet conglomerate Naspers – in the online classifieds segment.

Market leaders 99acres.com, Magicbricks.com are its competitors in the online real estate brokerage and property listing segments. Other players include Housing.com and News Corp-backed PropTiger, which decided to merge a year ago. News Corp is also the parent of VCCircle.