India's Urban Company closes Series F, hits $2.1b valuation
India’s Urban Company, a marketplace for in-home services from housekeeping to fitness training, has raised $255 million in Series F funding at a valuation of $2.1 billion.
Prosus Ventures, Dragoneer Investment, and Wellington Management lead the round, with support from Vy Capital, Tiger Global Management, and Steadview Capital. This included $188 million in primary capital, plus a secondary sale of $67 million by undisclosed angels and early investors. Prosus contributed at least $62 million.
It follows a $75 million Series E led by Tiger in 2019 and a $50 million Series D led by Vy the prior year. The fresh capital will support new investments in innovation, training, and product development, as well as quality control and safety measure for both service-providing partners and end-consumers. There are plans for an IPO in the next 24 months, according to TechCrunch.
The company also hopes to expand its geographic footprint across India’s 100 largest cities and enter international markets. Operations currently encompass 35,000 service partners across 35 cities in India, Singapore, Australia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Launched in 2014 as UrbanClap, Urban Company allows users to order professional services in areas with low digital adoption such as beauty treatments, haircuts, deep cleaning, plumbing, carpentry, appliance repair, pest control, and photography. It offers its service partners upskilling and training, as well as financing, insurance, and product procurement services.
“We have been extremely impressed by Urban Company’s success in digitally unifying the fragmented residential services market, both in India and abroad”, Eric Jones, a partner at Dragoneer, said in a statement. “No company is better positioned to capture the growing global demand for convenient digital access to help with everyday home tasks.”
There have been a number of private equity and venture capital investments in this concept around the region, including a $26 million Series C for Australia’s Airtasker in 2017 and a $36 million Series C for Japan’s Curama in 2020. Various larger platforms offer similar online-to-offline lifestyle services, from Meituan and 58 Daojia in China to Gojek in Southeast Asia.
More on South Asia
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.