Exclusive: Urban Company in talks to invest in MyGate

Apartment management solution provider MyGate is in talks with home services unicorn Urban Company to raise fresh funds, said three people aware of the details of the transaction.

“Urban Company has been in talks with MyGate for the past couple of months which have now reached an advanced stage,” said one of the sources. “The size of the investment is not clear at the moment but it’s likely to be a minority stake acquisition by Urban Company.”

According to sources, MyGate has been looking for funds for quite some time and a strategic investment from Urban Company would help it to fight deep-pocketed NoBroker (via NoBrokerHood). NoBroker, which entered the coveted club of unicorns in November after raising $210 million, has emerged as a top competitor for MyGate in the past couple of years.

“For Urban Company, the investment means access to over 30,000 societies and 4 million homes,” said the second source who also wished not to be named as they are not authorized to speak to the media.

It’s worth noting that Zomato was also in talks with MyGate for an investment a few months ago but the talks didn’t move beyond the preliminary stage.

Caveat: The deal may or may not go through.

Urban Company has declined to comment on the story while MyGate’s response is awaited. We will update the story in case the company responds.

Urban Company turned unicorn in June last year when it raised $255 million in a Series F round led by Prosus, Dragoneer and Wellington Management at a valuation of $2.1 billion. The company’s valuation jumped to $2.8 billion during its last ESOP sale program.

The potential investment is crucial for MyGate as the company hasn’t been able to raise a round in 2020 and 2021 when most growth stage startups managed to mop up large rounds at staggering valuation. The company raised a $56 million Series B round from Tencent, Tiger Global, JS Capital and others in October 2019. Tiger Global is a common investor in MyGate and Urban Company. 

MyGate allows home residents to approve entries and exits, communicate with their neighbors, log attendance and pay society maintenance bills and daily help workers through its application. In December 2021, the company acquired community commerce platform MyCommunity Genie also claimed that its community commerce vertical has been growing at 50% month-on-month.