Quikr has announced the acquisition of Grabhouse to further beef up its real estate arm — QuikrHomes. Along with the acquisition, the company has also announced the launch of its cashless managed rental solution.
Grabhouse is a Bangalore-based startup which has developed and operates a home rental marketplace. A couple of months ago, it was reported that Grabhouse was struggling to scale up its business and was therefore looking for a buyer.
As per the deal of the acquisition, Quikr will integrate Grabhouse’s products and technology stack into QuikrHomes while also reaping the strong synergies its business has with other verticals.
Commenting about the acquisition, Atul Tewari, COO, Quikr said,
We are very excited about the launch of our managed rentals model – it brings convenience to the consumers while eliminating cash from property rentals, and we are excited to start it with the acquisition of Grabhouse. Our business here will also benefit from unique competitive advantages as the Grabhouse target market has a great match with many of our other businesses such as C2C and bikes. On the cost side, the operational costs of the business will directly get shared with our services business.
In a joint statement, Prateek & Pankhuri, founders of Grabhouse, said,
Through its multiple verticals, Quikr caters to a large target audience, which opens for us a sea of potential consumers and property owners. At Grabhouse we’ve laid the foundation of a sound cashless business model for house rentals. We foresee a massive business opportunity now, as joining forces with Quikr means scaling quickly to build not just a long-term rentals brand but also enter other new territories.
Grabhouse was founded in 2013 by Prateek Shukla and Pankhuri Shrivastava. It is a community-based online exchange for finding rented accommodation which offers a broker-free, transparent experience to house hunters seeking rented or shared accommodation.
After the acquisition, the Bangalore-based home rental marketplace will continue its operations as an independent brand for managed rental homes. As part of the overall integration process, its founders and entire team will move to the Quikr HQ.
The startup has so far raised more than $13 million in 4 funding rounds from 3 investors. In October 2015, it raised around $10 million in Series B round of funding from its existing investors, Sequoia and Kalaari Capital. Prior to this, in November 2014, it raised $2.5 Mn in Series A round from Kalaari Capital and India Quotient. In July 2014, it raised $500K in funding.
Earlier this year, Quikr acquired CommonFloor for an undisclosed amount. However, reports suggests that the company was acquired at a valuation of $120 million. The deal was 100% equity-based.
