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Quikr turnover rises but it’s still India’s second-smallest unicorn by revenues

By Dearton Thomas Hector

  • 19 Jan 2018

Bengaluru-headquartered online classifieds platform Quikr India Pvt. Ltd posted a 55% rise in turnover for the financial year 2016-17, according to Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) filings.

The company's net sales increased from Rs 41.24 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 63.7 crore the following year. Further details are not available as the company has not filed a detailed summary of its financials.

The numbers suggest Quikr has retained the tag of being India's second-smallest unicorn by revenues, only ahead of messaging app Hike - which has no revenues to show.

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A unicorn is a company valued at more than $1 billion.

A Quikr spokesperson said the numbers reflected the company's diversification after starting out as a "conventional playbook-based classifieds platform".

"Our revenue trajectory has validated that the verticalisation strategy is working well and we are seeing strong acceleration in business fundamentals including revenue," the spokesperson said. "Our growth is well distributed across our verticals and their respective revenue models. We are seeing strong growth in both transaction models and lighter stack models."

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The spokesperson added, however, that the revenue figure did not include numbers from other group companies.

Quikr's net loss for 2015-16 had risen to Rs 534 crore from Rs 445 crore the previous financial year.

The filings for 2016-17 also pegged the company’s net worth at Rs 544.4 crore. Net worth is the value of all the company’s assets minus liabilities.

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Quikr has thus far raised around $350 million and is among India's leading internet companies with a valuation of nearly $1 billion.

Quikr's investors include marquee names such as Tiger Global, Kinnevik AB, eBay, Omidyar Network and Warburg Pincus.

The company has adopted an aggressive strategy of buying small digital startups to expand into verticals such as real estate, jobs, automobiles and services.

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A month ago, Quikr had agreed to buy real estate brokerage firm HDFC Realty Ltd and HDFC Developers Ltd, which runs an online classifieds platform, in a stock deal worth Rs 357 crore ($56 million).

As part of the deal, mortgage lender HDFC Ltd would pick up an unspecified stake in Quikr.

Last June, Quikr had acquired blue-collar jobs listing company Babajob Services Pvt. Ltd in a mostly-stock deal.

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Babajob was its eleventh acquisition in all and second in the hiring segment after Hiree.

Quikr was founded in 2008 by Pranay Chulet and Jiby Thomas. It had previously purchased CommonFloor and Grabhouse in the real estate segment, apart from a clutch of small startups in the services space.

The company struck at least seven deals in 2016 and two in 2015, according to VCCEdge, the data and research arm of VCCircle.

Quikr competes with OLX - backed by South African internet conglomerate Naspers - in the online classifieds segment.

Market leaders 99acres.com, Magicbricks.com are its competitors in the online real estate brokerage and property listing segments. Other players include Housing.com and News Corp-backed PropTiger, which decided to merge a year ago. News Corp is also the parent of VCCircle.

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