The Indian start-up ecosystem is going through a golden phase, churning out unicorns as it is raining cash for start-ups in the country. On Tuesday, Gurugram-based on-demand home service provider Urban Company became the latest addition to the unicorn family after raising around $190 million in its latest Series F funding round led by Prosus, according to company’s latest regulatory filings.
The Gurugram-based Urban Company joins a long list of Indian start-ups to have become a unicorn this year (twelfth), following start-ups like Chargebee, Gupshup, ShareChat, Groww, PharmEasy, CRED, and Meesho.
The company allows users to book appointments for grooming, cleaning, appliance repair, plumbing and more, right at home. In other words, it’s the Amazon of services, instead of the Amazon of products.
Post funding, the company’s valuation has more than doubled to $2 billion. It was valued at $933 million in 2019 after raising $75 million in its Series E funding round – it has raised $370 million so far across six institutional rounds. Tuesday’s funding round also included investors Tiger Global, Steadview Capital, Vy Capital, and others. Prosus invested $61.93 million for a stake of 3.18%, DF International $37 million for a stake of 1.90%, and Wellington Management $33.2 million for a stake of 1.7%.
Among existing investors, Vy Capital contributed the maximum with $30.22 million. Tiger Global invested $14.74 million and Steadview Capital invested $11.06 million.
According to the regulatory filings, Urban Company allotted 2,613 equity shares and 50,490 Series F preference shares at an issue price of ₹265,553.1 per share to raise the amount from investors in the Series F funding round.
Founded in 2014 by Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Varun Khaitan, and Raghav Chandra (each of whom will now hold a stake of 8.22% in the company), Urban Company has come a long way (especially after rebranding itself) to have a presence in over two dozen Indian cities (including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Pune) along with operating internationally in Sydney, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai.
It claims to have over 25,000 professionals on its platform serving around 5 million customers, and that its operating model focuses on turning service professionals into micro-entrepreneurs. It focuses on beauty and massage, appliance repair, plumbing, carpentry, cleaning, and painting, with each being sub-brands of Urban Company. It competes today with Amazon-backed HouseJoy, doubling its revenue to ₹263 crores in FY20 after its services were availed by many during the pandemic.
