Exclusive: Urban Company raises new round led by Prosus at $2 Bn valuation

Urban Company has been one of the handful of companies that has remained a hot proposition for top tier investors since its inception in 2014. After raising money from Tiger Global, Vy Capital and Steadview, the company has just raised close to $190 million in a new round led by Prosus (previously Naspers).

Urban Company has allotted 2,613 equity shares and 50,490 Series F preference shares at an issue price of Rs 265,553.1 per share to raise Rs 1,410.2 crore or $188 million, regulatory filings show.

Prosus led the round with Rs 464.53 crore or $61.93 million while the other two new investors - DF International and Wellington Management - have poured in $36.86 million and $33.2 million respectively. 

According to Fintrackr’s estimates, Urban Company has reached a post-money valuation of close to $2 billion or Rs 14,615 crore. The Gurugram-based company was valued at around $933 million in its last financing round in 2019.

Entrackr had exclusively reported about Urban Company’s new round from new and existing backers at a valuation of $2 billion on April 12.

Urban Company has become the twelfth Indian startup to turn into a unicorn in 2021 and the seventh in April. So far, Chargebee, Gupshup, ShareChat, Groww, PharmEasy, CRED and Meesho have entered the unicorn club this month.

Amongst its existing investors, Vy has contributed the maximum with $30.22 million. Tiger has invested $14.74 million and Steadview Capital, which participated in the fresh round that has materialised after 20 months, with $11.06 million.

Adding the Series F round, Urban Company has raised over $370 million across six institutional rounds. Accel, Ratan Tata, Elevation Capital (previously SAIF Partners) and Bessemer Venture Partners are its other backers. 

Following the funding round, Urban Company’s co-founders, Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Varun Khaitan and Raghav Chandra have had their stake diluted to a collective share of 24.66%. Elevation Capital is the largest stakeholder in the company with 14.56% stake followed by Accel and Vy Capital with 14.40% and 12.66% stake respectively.

Prosus, which led the Series F round, has 3.18% stake in the company. The complete shareholding of Urban Company can be seen below.

At present, Urban Company operates in over two dozen Indian cities along with international operations in Sydney, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Riyadh. It claims to have over 25,000 professionals on its platform serving around 5 million customers.

Over the years, Urban Company has sidelined its competition and emerged as the de facto leader in the once overcrowded home service space with Amazon-backed Housejoy and Tiger’s early bet in the segment LocalOye. 

Its dominance could also be observed from its financial performance in FY20.

Urban Company had doubled its revenue to Rs 263 crore in FY20 from Rs 132.04 crore in FY19. Its losses stood at Rs 155 crore during the year ending March 2020. Despite the pandemic, the company is likely to have closed FY21 with over Rs 400 crore in revenue in the last fiscal (FY21).