By Nishant Sharma
UrbanClap raised $50 million in a fresh round of funding led by Steadview Capital and existing investor Vy Capital as the home services startup plans to expand business.
Angel investors and employees will also sell shares and ESOPs worth $4 million in the latest round, the company said in a statement on Friday.
The investment values the company at about $480 million, more than double the valuation when it raised $21 million last year, a person privy to the development told BloombergQuint requesting anonymity.
UrbanClap said it will use the funds to accelerate addition of customers and service partners, build product and technology teams, improve training capabilities and enhance its supply-chain. It also plans to expand to tier-2 cities starting with Chandigarh.
Founded in 2014, the Bengaluru-based startup which counts Ratan Tata, Saif Partners, Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal among investors, helps customers order services like beauty and massage, appliance repair, plumbing, carpentry, cleaning, painting, among others.
About 15,000 service professionals earn work with UrbanClap. We have a mission to create more than 1 million micro-entrepreneurs for India and other emerging markets, Raghav Chandra, co-founder of UrbanClap, said in the statement.
UrbanClap, which competes with Housejoy and Quikr, saw its losses narrow to Rs 56.4 crore in the financial year ended March 2018 from Rs 67 crore a year earlier. Revenue, rose nearly 30 percent to Rs 11 crore during the period.
This article has been written by Nishant Sharma.
The original article can be found on Bloomberg Quint.