Urban Company Becomes 12th Unicorn after $190 Mn Series F Fundraise

Indian Gig marketplace for at-home services, Urban Company (formerly, UrbanClap) has become the 12th Indian startup to turn into a unicorn in 2021. It is also the seventh Unicorn in April after Chargebee, CRED, Groww, PharmEasy, ShareChat, GupShup and Meesho. Previously, insurtech startup Digit Insurance, SaaS startup InnovAccer, B2B commerce company Infra.Market and NBFC Five Star Business Finance turned into unicorns.

Although the company has not made its Unicorn status official, it last valued at around $933 million in 2019. The current fundraiser, from Tiger Global, Vy Capital and Steadview, of $188 million, takes the valuation to $2 Bn. Further, Prosus (formerly Naspers) led the Series F round, the regulatory filings show. The development was first reported by Entrackr, who stated that Urban Company has allotted 2,613 equity shares and 50,490 Series F preference shares at an issue price of Rs 265,553.1 per share to raise Rs 1,410.2 crore or $188 million.

Reports also suggest that Prosus led the round with $61.93 Mn. Further, DF International and Wellington Management infused $36.86 Mn and $33.2 Mn, respectively.

About Urban Company

Abhiraj Bahl, Raghav Chandra, and Varun Khaitan founded Urban Company (formerly, Urban Clap) in 2014. It is a home service company that focuses on beauty and massage, appliance repair, plumbing, carpentry, cleaning, and painting. At present, Urban Company operates in over 30 Indian cities. It also has international operations in Sydney, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Riyadh. It claims to have over 25,000 professionals on its platform serving around 5 million customers. The company changed its name from UrbanClap, after it claimed that it wanted a more globally acceptable brand name.

Its early investors include Accel, Elevation Capital (earlier SAIF Partners) and Bessemer Venture Partners. With this fundraise, the three founders — Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Varun Khaitan and Raghav Chandra — will each own 8.22% of the company. Elevation Capital (formerly Saif Partners) will hold a 14.56% stake, while Accel India will have a 14.40% stake.