Kinnevik leads $90m round for India's Quikr
Swedish early stage investor Investment AB Kinnevik has led a $90 million round of funding for Indian classifieds platform Quikr.
Kinnevik contributed $39.3 million to the round with the balance coming from existing investors. Those investors include Matrix Partners, Nokia Growth Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Omidyar Network, Warburg Pincus and e-commerce giant eBay.
Quikr is a large cross-category online classifieds business which claims to have over 30 million individual and small business users across 940 cities. The site covers categories as broad as electronics and household goods, real estate, cars, bikes, jobs and services.
According to AVCJ Research, Quikr has had four previous institutional fundraising rounds.
Matrix, Omidyar and eBay first invested just over $4 million in mid-2009. They returned a year later to invest another $6 million, this time with Norwest taking a stake. In 2011, Norwest committed another $8 million alongside eBay and Nokia Growth. The fourth round came a year later with Warburg Pincus, Matrix, Norwest and and eBay putting in $32 million.
This latest investment in Quikr is said to build on Kinnevik's existing investments in e-commerce platforms in India.
The firm is an early backer of German e-commerce incubator Rocket Internet, which helped estblish two digital commerce ventures in India: fashion retailer Jabong and online food ordering platform FoodPanda. Kinnevik has also invested in classifieds platforms in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Ghana and Russia.
"Our strategy is to invest in leading technology-enabled consumer businesses in growth markets by partnering with strong management teams and like-minded co-investors. The investment in Quikr fits squarely with our strategy and we look forward to supporting its growth in the years to come", said Mia Brunell Livfors, president and CEO of Kinnevik, in a statement.
The number of internet users in India is expected to increase from around 200 million today to over 550 million by 2018. Online retail sales are projected to rise from $2 billion to $16 billion over the same period.
More on Technology
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.