Quikr is valued at $1.5 bn but may still not be a unicorn

Online classifieds platform Quikr was valued at $1.5 billion in May this year, according to an independent valuation report filed by the Bengaluru headquartered company with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Incidentally, the valuation report was filed just a month prior to estimates released by Quikr shareholder AB Kinnevik, which owns a 17% stake in the company. In its interim report for the second quarter of 2019 ended June, the Swedish investor marked the fair value of its stake in the company at about $157 million. That leaves the Tiger Global backed company’s overall valuation shy of $1 billion.

The valuation report projected Quikr’s net losses for the financial year ended March 2019 at Rs 230 crore on Rs 277 crore in revenues from operations. The company is yet to file its earnings for the last financial year. For the financial year ended March 2018, the company reported consolidated net losses at Rs 233 crore on revenues of Rs 173.5 crore.

The development was first reported by Mint.

Separately, the valuation report also stated that the company is in the process of merging nine of its subsidiaries. The merger proposal is currently pending regulatory approvals.

In July this year, the company raised $3 million in debt from venture lender Trifecta Capital. The company last raised a major round of capital in 2015 when Kinnevik, New York headquartered alternative investment firm Tiger Global Management and hedge fund Steadview Capital invested $150 million. Overall, the company is estimated to have raised a little over $350 million.

Apart from Tiger Global, Steadview and Kinnevik, other investors in the company include Warburg Pincus, the New York based private equity firm, and venture capital firms Matrix Partners India and Nokia Growth Partners. 

In April this year, it acquired used goods marketplace Zefo, adding to a string of acquisitions that the company has made over the past few years.

Since 2015, the company has acquired stakes in 16 entities, according to data compiled by VCCEdge. 

Founded in 2008 and led by Pranay Chulet, Quikr is a classifieds platform that connects buyers and sellers to connect, earning advertisement and commission revenues from a wide spectrum of services such as jobs, automobiles, electronics, education, among others. It also operates real estate services portal Commonfloor and home personal care platform At Home Diva.