Quikr Launches Initiative 'Helphospitals.in' to Connect Medical Communities with Suppliers to Source Equipment's and Materials

Quikr, the company that redefined classifieds by building India's largest transaction marketplace for pre-owned goods and services.

Our healthcare community is working relentlessly to stop the spread of COVID-19 and flatten the curve in India. During these tough times, they are facing a shortage of medical supplies and the nation-wide lockdown isn’t helping the case either. In an attempt to help doctors and healthcare professionals, Quikr has launched helphospitals.in, a platform which connects medical communities with relevant suppliers to source equipments and materials needed for treatment of COVID-19 patients and safety of medical staff.

Through this initiative, the company helps identify medical requirements that are needed on an urgent basis and connects hospitals/doctors with suppliers who can fulfil it. Currently available pan India, the platform is seeing an increased traction on a daily basis, especially in Telangana, Delhi, Karnataka where there is a dire need for medical supplies. With an increased demand of about 2.72 lakh units across India, some of the most in need items are 3-ply masks, gloves, bouffant caps, coverall suits, ventilators, hand sanitizers, bleach disinfectant, infrared thermometer, needle cutters, and HME bacterial viral breathing filters among others.

This is a unique initiative which is a part of the larger industry-level drive announced recently – Action Covid-19 Team (ACT) launched by Indian startups and investors to support innovations that address Covid-19 challenges in the country.

Quikr Launches 'Nxt' - An Instant Messaging Service For Buyers & Sellers

Mumbai-based online classifieds website Quikr on Wednesday announced the launch of a new feature, called Quikr Nxt, in order to bring buyers and sellers together on its online platform. The new service allows users to chat using the website or mobile app

With Quickr Nxt, users can choose to make a listing private, which hides their email ID and phone number on the site which mean it allows buyers to message sellers without a phone number.

Earlier, the website allowed users to check the products online and close the deals by interacting through email or calls. The instant messaging or chat service, which can be used both on the desktop and mobile, will help Quickr provide better value to small business owners who pay for listings.

With Quikr Nxt, you don't have to share your contact number of email address with anyone. The only point of contact becomes your Quikr ID, and you can use Quikr Nxt to chat with people using the app on your phone, or on the website.

"This will help us in monetizing. Now a small business owner, who buys a package of listings, can see the value and have a record of the deals struck through us," said Pranay Chulet, CEO and founder of Quikr.

The new service, which was tested in ten cities over the past month, has accelerated the pace at which deals are struck on the online platform. "For used goods, it used to take two-three days for a sale, but with the messaging we have seen that time come down to less than a day in some cases," Chulet said. The chat service will boost sales in the used goods, electronics and real estate categories but it has applications in other product lines as well, he said.

Quickr Nxt Advert -

Quikr gets $60 million funding led by Tiger Global Management

India's largest online and mobile classifieds portals based in Mumbai - Quickr.com, has raised $60 million (Rs 367 crore) from backers led by U.S. investor Tiger Global Management LLC with participation from its current investors.

The fund raised will help Quickr to boost product development and expansion into mobile business, which contributes over 70% of the traffic and has grown nearly five times in the past one year

The current round comes six months after it raised $90 million (Rs 550 crore) from a group led by Swedish investment firm Kinnevik. The company is backed by Matrix Partners India, Omidyar Network, Norwest Venture Partners and invested in by eBay.

Quikr says it has more than 30 million monthly consumer and small businesses who use the portal to sell, buy or rent products or services. Its main competitor is OLX which is owned by South African media giant Naspers

This new round may give Quikr post-money valuation of Rs 2,800 crore, or $460 million, while the previous round in March had valued the company at about Rs 1,500 crore, or $240 million making it one of the most heavily capitalised Indian internet companies outside ecommerce.

Tiger Global - part hedge fund, part private equity - is one of a growing number of Wall Street financiers eyeing technology start-ups who have yet to list on the market.

Headquartered in Mumbai, Quikr was launched on 12 July 2008 and is currently present in 900 cities across India. Quikr provides the local community with a platform to help them buy, sell, rent and find something and address needs across many categories. Formerly known as Kijiji.in, the online classified startup was founded by Pranay Chulet who is now Co-founder & CEO of Quickr.