Bessemer leads $25m round for India's UrbanClap
Bessemer Venture Partners has led a $25 million Series B funding round for Indian local services marketplace UrbanClap.
Existing investors Accel Partners and SAIF Partners also participated in the round, according to a YourStory article linked on UrbanClap's Twitter account. The two GPs committed $10 million to the company's Series A round in June, two months after contributing to a $1.6 million seed round alongside Snapdeal co-founders Rohit Bansal and Kunal Bahl.
UrbanClap will use the funding to double the size of its team, to expand its geographic reach from five to 25 cities, and to increase its service offerings to 100 categories from the current 75. The company aims to serve more than 100,000 customers every day within the next year, up from the 5,000 that it currently serves.
Founded in 2014, UrbanClap operates a marketplace for users to book professional services such as tutors, photographers and fitness consultants, or home services such as plumbers, carpenters and electricians. It contracts with 20,000 service professionals, a base that the company hopes to increase to 200,000 by next year.
India's local services sector has grown quickly, with several start-ups vying for customers and funding. Significant investments this year include a Series C round in April for classified ad platform Sulekha led by GIC Private and a $5 million Tiger Global-led Series A round for LocalOye.
Online business directory Just Dial is one of the earliest entries in the market; the company was backed by several VC investors, including Sequoia Capital and SAIF, prior to its 2013 IPO.
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