Innoven Capital infuses Rs 55 Crore venture debt in Quikr

Online classifieds and service platform Quikr has raised Rs 55 crore in a venture debt from Innoven Capital. Probably, this external capital infusion has come to the Bengaluru-based firm after 42 months hiatus.

Prior to this debt round, the company had raised $150 million in a Series H round from Kinnevik in April 2015.

The company will be using debts towards scaling up multiple verticals, mentioned Quikr through a press statement. Although the infusion doesn’t seem significant, it’s a good sign for Quikr. According to Innoven, the decade-old company has been showing strong growth momentum while improving unit economics.

Emphasis on improving unit economics also reflected in Quikr’s financial report card. It registered a 95.6 per cent increase in consolidated operating revenue in FY18 to Rs 173.49 crore as compared to Rs 88.67 crore in FY17.

The company also controlled losses by 23 per cent to Rs 233 crore in the financial year ending March this year.

So far, Quikr had raised over Rs 2,400 crore from the likes of Kinnevik, Matrix Partners India, Omidyar Network, Norwest Venture Partners, Warburg Pincus, and eBay Inc. It also acquired 13 companies including Indian Realty Exchange (IRX), RealtyCompass, CommonFloor, Grabhouse, Zimmber, HDFC Realty among several others.

After evangelising horizontal classifieds model for about 8 years, Quikr now claims to have full stack transactional model. It’s also testing Dunzo sort of logistics play Quikr Easy in Bengaluru.

Recently, UrbanClap - Quikr’s strongest competitor in the service segment had scooped up a $50 million Series D round from Steadview Capital and Vy Capital.

Meanwhile, the company has been in talks with new as well as existing investors to raise up to $150 million for over three months. Going forward, it would be interesting to see how Quikr convinces the new investor to lead the much-needed financing round.