Tiger Global-backed online classifieds website Quikr on Monday announced the acquisition of Grabhouse, an online home rental solutions provider, in an all-stock deal giving investors Sequoia Capital and Kalaari Capital stake in Quikr.
The two companies didn’t disclose the size of the deal, but three people familiar with the matter said Quikr paid $10 million for the start-up. They spoke on condition of anonymity, as the terms of the deal were private.
Quikr is an Indian classified advertising platform. It was founded by Pranay Chulet and Jiby Thomas in 2008. Headquartered in Bengaluru, Quikr has listings in over 1,000 cities in India in categories such as mobile phones, household goods, cars, real estate, jobs, services and education.
Founded by Prateek Shukla and Pankhuri Shrivastava in July 2013, Grabhouse offers end-to-end digital solutions for the rental needs of both owners and tenants. It offers a rental marketplace comprising of apartments, paying guest (PGs) and peer to peer rentals across 11 cities.
Grabhouse, which last raised $10 million from Sequoia and Kalaari Capital in 2015, was suffering from cash crunch and scalability issues, Shrivastava said they had figured out a good business model. “We needed to have a huge pipeline of demand and supply, and Quikr’s other services sit well with our model. Quikr allows us to scale the business quickly,” she said.
Talking about the acquisition, Atul Tewari, COO, Quikr said, “We are very excited about the launch of our managed rentals model – it brings convenience to consumers while eliminating cash from property rentals, and we are excited to start it with the acquisition of Grabhouse. Our business here will also benefit from unique competitive advantages as the Grabhouse target market has a great match with many of our other businesses such as C2C and bikes. On the cost side, the operational costs of the business will directly get shared with our services business.”
