Quikr buys home rental startup Grabhouse

In a bid to strengthen its real estate arm, online classifieds company Quikr has acquired home rental start-up Grabhouse in an all-stock deal. Along with the acquisition, the company also announced the launch of its cashless managed rental solution.

"The managed rentals model brings convenience to consumers while eliminating cash from property rentals. Our business here will benefit from unique competitive advantages as the Grabhouse target market has a great match with many of our other businesses," said Atul Tewari, COO of Quikr.

Grabhouse, founded in 2013 by Prateek Shukla and Pankhuri Shrivastava, is a Bangalore-based startup which has developed and operates a home rental marketplace. A couple of months ago, it was reported that Grabhouse was struggling to scale up its business and was, therefore, looking for a buyer.

Quikr will be integrating Grabhouse’s products and technology stack into QuikrHomes while also reaping the strong synergies its business has with other verticals.

In a joint statement, Prateek & Pankhuri, founders of Grabhouse, said, “Through its multiple verticals, Quikr caters to a large target audience, which opens for us a sea of potential consumers and property owners. At Grabhouse we’ve laid the foundation of a sound cashless business model for house rentals. We foresee a massive business opportunity now, as joining forces with Quikr means scaling quickly to build not just a long-term rentals brand but also enter other new territories.”

Though Grabhouse will continue operations as an independent brand for managed rental homes but as part of the overall integration process, its founders and the entire team will move to the Quikr HQ. Manish Sinha, Head of QuikrHomes said: "Grabhouse will provide a deeper solution for our large rental supply and demand flow across QuikrHomes and Commonfloor. This (acquisition) will help us expand our solutions portfolio while addressing the real estate industry's need to shift to cashless payments."