The comparatively better-backed online home services marketplace, UrbanClap has announced that it has received an undisclosed amount of funding from Ratan Tata, the Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons. He has invested in the company in his personal capacity.
The Gurgaon-based startup was founded in 2014 by Varun Khaitan, Raghav Chandra, and Abhiraj Bahl. This news comes just weeks after the company had raised $25 million in Series B round of funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, along with the participation of SAIF Partners and Accel Partners at a valuation of more than $100 million.
Sources tell us, that the company is looking forward to a $100 Million round already.
Commenting about the backing of Ratan Tata, Abhiraj Bahl, co-founder of the company, said,
We are glad to have Mr. Ratan N Tata come onboard UrbanClap as an investor. Mr. Tata’s experience over decades, in building enterprises Indian’s trust, will be invaluable for us, as we build out a trusted services marketplace.
Urbanclap, which is backed by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, founders of Snapdeal, is an online marketplace for blue collared services like electricians or home cleaning, and white collared services like photographers, interior designers, etc.
Currently operational in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Pune, the company is planning to expand its services to 25 more cities and introduce new categories next year. Right now, it is offering more than 80 services through its network of over 25,000 service professionals.
Ratan Tata seems to be on an investment spree. He has invested in a lot of startups since last few months. Recently, he has made investments in HolaChef, Infinite Analytics, Zivame, Abra, etc.
He has also made investment in some of the hottest startups which are growing at a very high pace such as Ola and Snapdeal. Also, he has invested an undisclosed amount in one of the most popular Chinese smartphone manufacturer – Xiaomi.
In this space, UrbanClap is competing against the likes of LoccalOye, HouseJoy, Zimmber, etc. which have raised significant amount of funding and hopes to be at the pole position in the market.
