Quikr Acquires Chennai-based 'India Property' to Further Expand its O2O Real Estate Platform

Quikr, which now operates leading transaction marketplaces built on top of India’s largest classifieds platform, today announced the acquisition of India Property Online Private Limited, a leading full-stack real estate platform based out of Chennai. The move is another important step in Quikr’s strategy of building transactions on top of classifieds.

With this Quikr has now made a total of 14 acquisitions to date. Exactly a year back, Quikr had acquired HDFC Realty and HDFC Developers, in an all stocks deal.

India Property offers solutions that simplify property buying, selling and renting. It lists over 6 lakh properties and 8000+ verified builder projects across 15+ cities in India. The company monetizes on both the demand and supply side of the market, with solutions enabling property search, diligence, financing, and transactions. It has also built a powerful analytics platform using street-level transaction data for residential properties covering about 5 million properties in South India. India Property is backed by leading VC fund Bertelsmann India Investments and Mayfield.

On the announcement, Pranay Chulet, Founder and CEO, Quikr, said, “With $180B market potential, Indian real estate is one of the largest sectors of the economy. Since verticalization of our business, we have looked at both organic and inorganic ways to go deeper in this strategically important category. The strong base of India Property in Southern states and its full-stack model will help us grow our transaction business while also adding to our classifieds base.”

Real Estate contributed to 35% of Quikr revenue in FY17-18 and is a profitable vertical for the company. The business is on track to again grow more than 100% in FY18-19. The company is now the largest transactional player in real estate with two growing transactional models – a co-living business to offer shared rentals to millennials, and a brokerage business for home buying. Both businesses derive their supply and demand from Quirk’s sizable classifieds base in QuikrHomes and Commonfloor. In the co-living business, Quikr is the largest player in the country with over 70,000 tenants at the end of November.

Commenting on the development, Ganesh Vasudevan, CEO, India Property Online Private Limited said, “India Property is one of the earliest full-stack online real estate businesses. We have focused on the South Indian market and built a comprehensive solution suite for buyers and sellers with several transaction enablers. We have demonstrated monetization around these products and will now be able to offer them across Quikr’s real estate base.”

Pankaj Makkar, Managing Director at Bertelsmann India Investments said, “We are excited to partner Quikr as they build market-leading positions in horizontal as well as vertical classified businesses including in real estate. With this transaction, I am confident India Property will play a strong role in driving Quikr’s growth in South India.”

YES Securities Investment Banking acted as the exclusive financial advisor while IndusLaw and S&R Associates were the legal advisors for this transaction.

Quikr, which now operates leading transaction marketplaces built on top of India’s largest classifieds platform, is India’s largest platform that is used by over 30 million unique users a month. It is present in 1200 cities in India and operates several large classifieds businesses across C2C, Cars, Education, Homes, Jobs, and Services. Quikr is accessible across mobile app, mobile site as well as desktop, and allows consumers as well as small businesses to sell, buy, rent and find things across its multiple categories with great ease. Quikr’s investors include Tiger Global Management, Kinnevik, Warburg Pincus, Matrix Partners India, Norwest Venture Partners, NGP Capital, Steadview Capital, Omidyar Network etc.

Quikr Buys HDFC Realty and HDFC Developers for ₹357 Crore

HDFC Bank, India’s largest private sector bank by market capitalization, has announced that it has sold two of its subsidiaries -- HDFC Realty and HDFC Developers, in an all stocks deal.

Both HDFC Realty — an offline brokerage business and HDFC Developers (which runs online real estate classifieds platform HDFC RED) are 100% subsidiaries of HDFC.

According to a report by Moneycontrol, HDFC will get over 3 percent stake in Quikr India in lieu of sale of its stake in the two subsidiaries for Rs 357 crore.

Post this integration deal of HDFC Realty and RED, Quikr will become India’s leading online-to-offline real estate platform and offer consumers end-to-end home buying services, according to a statement from HDFC.

Notably, before this Quikr itself has previously acquired four real estate related startups so far, including Grabhouse and Commonfloor.

HDFC, on other hand, has made a second such startup deal where it has picked up a minority stake. Earlier in 2015, HDFC had picked up minority stake in Cardekho.com, an automobile-based online portal.

Quikr Buys HDFC Realty and HDFC Developers for ₹357 Crore

HDFC Bank, India’s largest private sector bank by market capitalization, has announced that it has sold two of its subsidiaries -- HDFC Realty and HDFC Developers, in an all stocks deal.

Both HDFC Realty — an offline brokerage business and HDFC Developers (which runs online real estate classifieds platform HDFC RED) are 100% subsidiaries of HDFC.

According to a report by Moneycontrol, HDFC will get over 3 percent stake in Quikr India in lieu of sale of its stake in the two subsidiaries for Rs 357 crore.

Post this integration deal of HDFC Realty and RED, Quikr will become India’s leading online-to-offline real estate platform and offer consumers end-to-end home buying services, according to a statement from HDFC.

Notably, before this Quikr itself has previously acquired four real estate related startups so far, including Grabhouse and Commonfloor.

HDFC, on other hand, has made a second such startup deal where it has picked up a minority stake. Earlier in 2015, HDFC had picked up minority stake in Cardekho.com, an automobile-based online portal.

Online Classifieds Portal Quikr In Talks To Acquire Babajobs

According to a media report, Quikr, online classifieds portal is in talks to acquire Babajob. This transaction will enable the Bengaluru-based company, Babajob to consolidate its position in the Indian blue-collar job market under its QuikrJobs vertical.

Babajobs connects blue-collar workers through a digital platform. It was founded with a purpose to provide aspiring workers (such as drivers, delivery executives, nurses, beauticians, entry-level sales, BPO executives and more) access to better employment opportunities.

Recently, startup claimed that it over 7 million registered job-seekers and approximately 5,00,000 employees scouting for talent. They have their geographical presence in over 20 cities including Coimbatore, Bhopal, Indore, besides Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi.

In 2012, the platform raised a seed funding of Rs 3.5 crore from Gray Ghost Ventures and Khosla Impact. In April 2016, Babajob raised $10 million in a round of funding led by Australian-based online employment marketplace Seek.

In May 2017, Quikr had acquired home services startup Zimmber for about $10 million in an all-stock deal. The startup, which is valued at about $1.5 billion, had acquired home beauty startups Zalosa, Zapluk and Stayglad in quick succession last year. The company had committed an investment of Rs 250 crore in January last year to expand the category.

As per Amit Jain, head of Quikr Jobs, the platform receives 5 million applications per month and had seen a 50% increase in user base. If it goes through, the Babajob acquisition would mark the ninth acquisition by Quikr since 2016.

Last year, it acquired CommonFloor, Grabhouse, Stepni, ZapLuk, Salosa, StayGlad, and Hiree.

Online Classifieds Portal Quikr In Talks To Acquire Babajobs

According to a media report, Quikr, online classifieds portal is in talks to acquire Babajob. This transaction will enable the Bengaluru-based company, Babajob to consolidate its position in the Indian blue-collar job market under its QuikrJobs vertical.

Babajobs connects blue-collar workers through a digital platform. It was founded with a purpose to provide aspiring workers (such as drivers, delivery executives, nurses, beauticians, entry-level sales, BPO executives and more) access to better employment opportunities.

Recently, startup claimed that it over 7 million registered job-seekers and approximately 5,00,000 employees scouting for talent. They have their geographical presence in over 20 cities including Coimbatore, Bhopal, Indore, besides Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi.

In 2012, the platform raised a seed funding of Rs 3.5 crore from Gray Ghost Ventures and Khosla Impact. In April 2016, Babajob raised $10 million in a round of funding led by Australian-based online employment marketplace Seek.

In May 2017, Quikr had acquired home services startup Zimmber for about $10 million in an all-stock deal. The startup, which is valued at about $1.5 billion, had acquired home beauty startups Zalosa, Zapluk and Stayglad in quick succession last year. The company had committed an investment of Rs 250 crore in January last year to expand the category.

As per Amit Jain, head of Quikr Jobs, the platform receives 5 million applications per month and had seen a 50% increase in user base. If it goes through, the Babajob acquisition would mark the ninth acquisition by Quikr since 2016.

Last year, it acquired CommonFloor, Grabhouse, Stepni, ZapLuk, Salosa, StayGlad, and Hiree.

QuikrScanner For Cars Launched To Connect Cars With Owners

QuikrCars, Indian destination for inspected consumer cars, has launched QuikrScanner For Cars, an app that offers car owners real-time, 24x7 connectivity to track their car’s location, performance, health and overall condition. Empowering consumers through technology, the launch expands the range of products and services offered by QuikrCars, Quikr’s auto vertical focused on all types of automobiles including cars, bikes and commercial vehicles.

The QuikrScanner For Cars app is available on Android and iOS. It receives information from an OBD device connected to the car’s OBDII port. It allows consumers to enjoy a wide range of benefits such as real-time location tracking and notifications, a detailed view of vehicle history, security from car theft and monitoring of the overall health of the car. It provides an intuitive report on fuel economy, and detailed information on each trip the car has made. The device can be programmed to feed data to any number of mobile phones and all it needs is a SIM card with an active data plan. The phone that is used to read all the info need not be connected all the time.

Atul Tewari, Head of QuikrCars and COO of Quikr, said, “After the success of our first QuikrScanner app that diagnoses the health of mobile phones, we were convinced about its use case for cars too. Through a technology driven innovation like QuikrScanner For Cars, we are delivering on car owners’ needs that go beyond just buying or selling. The app, which is like a Fitbit for cars, also addresses elements of safety and security through its various features. Plus, it also enables a one vehicle-many users scenario - eg, data from a single device on a school vehicle can be accessed by all the parents. We are excited about this new step we’ve taken in our relationship with India’s car owners.”

QuikrCars has over 1.5MM vehicles listed and has the largest inventory of consumer inspected vehicles in India. It recently acquired Stepni to introduce vehicle maintenance services, and also offers RTO assistance to help transfer of ownership once a car has been traded on the platform. QuikrCars was the first to bring innovations such as the Maximum Sales Price (MSP) calculator to the market to help users ascertain the best price range for cars. It also offers a localized discovery module that shows recently posted and trending vehicle models around a particular location.

Quikr is used by over 30 million unique users a month. It is present in 1000 cities in India and operates several large classifieds businesses across C2C, Cars, Education, Homes, Jobs and Services. Quikr is accessible across mobile app, mobile site as well as desktop, and allows consumers as well as small businesses to sell, buy, rent and find things across its multiple categories with great ease. Quikr’s investors include Tiger Global Management, Kinnevik, Warburg Pincus, Matrix Partners India, Norwest Venture Partners, Nokia Growth Partners, Steadview Capital, Omidyar Network, and Ebay Inc.

Quikr Launches Dazzlr, A Talent Discovery Platform For Film Fraternity

Quikr, a cross category classifieds business, today announced the launch of Dazzlr, a talent discovery platform that brings together Actors, Casting Professionals, Directors and Producers. Available on both Android and iOS, Dazzlr is aimed at organizing casting and talent discovery that will address the needs of the film industry in India and beyond. The Indian media and entertainment sector alone is expected to become a US$ 29.11 billion by 2019.

Dazzlr allows budding actors to list for free with a fee to apply for select roles. The platform enables production houses and casting directors to post their requirements and browse through artist portfolios to bookmark and call them for auditions. Some of its unique features for artists include provisions for video and image uploads to build a portfolio and notifications to help them stay updated on opportunities in upcoming screen roles.

The platform has been developed by Quikr in partnership with Vivek Bohra, a third generation Film Maker and renowned Casting Director, Aadore Mukherjee. It offers tailored solutions to cater to the unique needs of both artists and casting professionals for a variety of entertainment formats such as cinema, television, theatre, advertising, regional and international film production. Based in Mumbai, Dazzlr currently has a strong team of professionals that will operate as an independent entity under the Quikr umbrella.



Talking about the launch Pranay Chulet, Founder & CEO Quikr said, "Right from our early days, we’ve had entertainment as a category in Quikr. It gets half a million monthly unique visitors without any marketing because of the sheer size of India’s media and entertainment industry. Artists are always looking for projects, aspirants are always looking for a break and production houses are always looking for talent. Technology can be a huge enabler in this marketplace as I’ve seen in my own experience in this space in the past. We’re tremendously excited about this opportunity to help bring more structure to this large, multilingual industry that touches every corner of India."

Sharing his enthusiasm about the announcement, Vivek Bohra, Writer, Director and Dazzlr Co-Founder said, “This is just a first step in Dazzlr’s journey to help organize the unorganized segments of the entertainment industry. We have worked closely with the product and technology teams at Quikr to ensure that Dazzlr caters to the unique needs of our peers in the film industry. While we begin with getting ease and transparency to casting and discoverability for industry professionals, we are sure that the road ahead is going to see many more divisions of the entertainment industry becoming more transparent and organized”.

Casting Director, Aadore Mukherjee further added, “Dazzlr is the culmination of months of hard work and years of experience in the film industry. We have kept the approach very professional and have created a platform that helps aspiring actors get the attention they deserve. The response so far has been very encouraging and in barely a couple of weeks of testing, we have over 70 casting directors, production houses, advertising agencies and close to 2000 artists using the platform across India. Dazzlr has already helped to cast commercials for Axis Bank and Dark Fantasy Chocolates. Just like my upcoming film Baar Baar Deko which features cast from the UK. I expect Dazzlr to create an impact for talent internationally as well.”

Fxkart.com Announces Exclusive Partnership with QuikrServices for Foreign Exchange

Fxkart.com, Indian marketplace for foreign exchange, today announced its exclusive partnership with QuikrServices, the services vertical of India’s cross-category classifieds platform Quikr, to provide unparalleled convenience to people looking out for the best deals on foreign exchange.

With Fxkart.com’s revolutionary forex deal discovery engine, Quikr consumers across India can book forex deals on the Quikr platform itself. This partnership brings transparency, speed and credibility to the usually unorganized money exchange industry.

Abdul Hadi Shaikh, CEO of Fxkart.com, said, “In the last 18 month of operations we have seen exponential growth and have been able to cater to thousands of overseas travelers with the best deals on forex by saving them thousands of Rupees. With this partnership, we wish to extend the convenience of exchanging foreign currency on the Quikr platform and make such deals absolutely easy to access all across India.”

Commenting on the partnership, P D Sundar, Head of QuikrServices said, “Easy access to a ready consumer base is the precise benefit we offer each of our partners. It offers them the opportunity to focus on their core product and scale their business without having to worry about customer acquisition. Fxkart.com offers great exchange rates and we are happy to partner with them to bring their service to all our consumers.”

Quikr, Indian cross-category classifieds business, launched QuikrServices in 2015 with a special focus on the unorganized sector of service providers across the country. QuikrServices has 250,000 service providers offering over 80 types of services for consumers and is being used by 1, 00,000 customers every day. It provides easy access to reliable service providers across sub-categories such as home, travel, financial, health, fitness, and beauty and event services.

Fxkart.com is an online fin-tech startup for buying and selling foreign currency. It deals in currency, travel cards & International money transfers. In the last 18 months, the company has already become India’s largest online foreign exchange platform with 250+ RBI licensed money changers delivering foreign exchange across 1300+ locations in India.

Image - Abdul Hadi Shaikh, CEO of Fxkart.com 

Zuver Ties Up With QuikrServices for Driver on Demand Services

Zuver, a driver on demand startup from Mumbai, today announced that it has tied up with QuikrServices, the services vertical of Quikr, India’s No.1 cross-category classified business. As per the tie up, any on-demand driver requests from Mumbai and Pune will be fulfilled by Zuver with its network of professional drivers.

The exclusive partnership aims to boost the need for the driver on demand category on QuikrServices which calls for skilled, trust worthy and well informed professional drivers. Quikr consumers across these two cities can now book drivers for daily commutes, outstation trips and also to avail valet services for help with parking.

Speaking on this Mr. Sidhanth Mally, Co-founder of Zuver, said, “Zuver is a rapidly growing driver on demand service provider while Quikr is a market leading brand, through this partnership we are excited to share our expertise with Quikr consumers in the driver on-demand space. We have over 150 drivers in Mumbai and Pune all of whom are trained and validated to drive all types of cars ranging from hatchbacks to SUVs. ”

Talking about this tie up, P D Sundar, Head of QuikrServices said, “Partnerships like this help bridge demand and supply by offering service providers like Zuver access to our robust consumer base. We are delighted to be associated with Zuver which provides skilled & well trained drivers who are knowledgeable of city routes.”

Founded by co-partners Sidhanth Mally and Sovin Hegde, Zuver, a Mumbai-based startup provides 24X7 on demand driver requirement services at any location throughout the city. Zuver offers you drivers on demand to drive you to your destination, in the comfort of your car.

Zuver was co-founded in 2015. The startup provides personal drivers on demand through a mobile app based platform band charges by the minute.

The company currently processes 50 requests a day and says that is in process of ramping up to 500 rides a day by the end of the calendar year. Zuver is currently present in Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore and plans to be in 30 cities by the end of 2017.

Quikr Buys Beauty Services Startup and Its Partner Salosa For an Undisclosed Sum

Quikr has acquired Salosa, an on demand in-home beauty services provider. This strategic acquisition is a part of Quikr’s plan to invest Rs. 250 crore in its home services vertical, QuikrServices. Salosa which has been a partner to QuikrServices will further strengthen its beauty services offerings with stylists that have undergone a rigorous process of quality & background checks along with required training.

In line with Quikr’s verticalization strategy, this investment will enable the company go deeper and faster in key categories under QuikrServices. Founded by Ex- P&G professionals, Piyush Dhanuka and Anurag Nair, Salosa was launched in September 2015, serving customers in Gurgaon and parts of Delhi. It began first as a marketplace for freelance beauticians and stylists before shifting to a full stack model with an in house team.

"Quikr is amongst the top consumer internet leaders in India today along with being a major player in the services space. We share a similar vision with Quikr and look forward to combining our experience in the beauty domain with Quikr’s scale and strategy to become the best beauty services brand across the country," said Anurag Nair, Co-Founder, Salosa.

QuikrServices has been aggressively going deeper in the home services space to provide consumers a richer experience with reliable professionals. Due to the strength of the Quikr brand, the platform has been witnessing a consistent increase in average spend from its consumers over the last 6 months and is seeing a repeat rate of over 60%. QuikrServices has 250,000 service providers offering over 80 types of services for consumers and is being used by 1,00,000 customers every day.

Apart from this, Quikr has also acquired Indian Realty Exchange, a real estate agent aggregator, and RealtyCompass, a real estate analytics startup as well as made a strategic investment in A.N. Virtual World Tech Ltd, a company which provides 360-degree street views.

Quikr Ties Up With Fixy to Boost its Home Services Vertical QuikrServices

[caption id="attachment_104402" align="alignnone" width="700"] Fixy Founders - Nabeel & Tufayl Merchant[/caption]

Fixy, an on demand home maintenance services startup from Mumbai, has tied up with QuikrServices, a services vertical of Quikr, Indian cross category classified business.

Through this partnership Fixy will exclusively facilitate on demand fixing services like plumbing, electrical and carpentry to Quikr’s consumers across Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane region.

“Fixy is a rapidly growing home service provider while Quikr is a market leading brand, through this partnership we are excited to share our expertise with Quikr consumers in the on demand home services space,” added Tufayl Merchant, Co-founder, Fixy.

QuikrServices is aimed at bridging the gap between the offline local home services ecosystem and online demand for the same. It provides consumers easy access to reliable service providers across sub-categories such as home, travel, financial, health, fitness, beauty and event services.

Founded by twin co-founders Tufayl and Nabeel Merchant, Fixy helping customers find trusted professionals for household services, like electrician, carpenter, plumber or appliance care, Fixy offers its customers a holistic home maintenance experience. Additionally they also provide services like sanitisation of matress, sofa shampooing and deep cleaning of each room of the house.

In the month of August 2015, Fixy raised undisclosed amount of funding from the investors behind OYO rooms.

Two months ago, Quikr had also announced its plans to invest about $37.5 million in its home services category. It competes with players like Findyahan, Housejoy, Urbanclap, Timesaverz, and Zimmber among others.

Quikr Ties Up With Fixy to Boost its Home Services Vertical QuikrServices

[caption id="attachment_104402" align="alignnone" width="700"] Fixy Founders - Nabeel & Tufayl Merchant[/caption]

Fixy, an on demand home maintenance services startup from Mumbai, has tied up with QuikrServices, a services vertical of Quikr, Indian cross category classified business.

Through this partnership Fixy will exclusively facilitate on demand fixing services like plumbing, electrical and carpentry to Quikr’s consumers across Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane region.

“Fixy is a rapidly growing home service provider while Quikr is a market leading brand, through this partnership we are excited to share our expertise with Quikr consumers in the on demand home services space,” added Tufayl Merchant, Co-founder, Fixy.

QuikrServices is aimed at bridging the gap between the offline local home services ecosystem and online demand for the same. It provides consumers easy access to reliable service providers across sub-categories such as home, travel, financial, health, fitness, beauty and event services.

Founded by twin co-founders Tufayl and Nabeel Merchant, Fixy helping customers find trusted professionals for household services, like electrician, carpenter, plumber or appliance care, Fixy offers its customers a holistic home maintenance experience. Additionally they also provide services like sanitisation of matress, sofa shampooing and deep cleaning of each room of the house.

In the month of August 2015, Fixy raised undisclosed amount of funding from the investors behind OYO rooms.

Two months ago, Quikr had also announced its plans to invest about $37.5 million in its home services category. It competes with players like Findyahan, Housejoy, Urbanclap, Timesaverz, and Zimmber among others.