Quikr, India’s leading classified platform, recently acquired Zimmber (on-demand household services provider) for $10 million in an all-stock deal, as asserted by Praveen Sinha, an entrepreneur and investor with this move, Quikr has further strengthened its hold in the home services space.
In January last year, the classified platform invested Rs 250 crore to expand the category. It also acquired home beauty start-ups Zalosa, Zapluk and Stayglad. Marking its fourth acquisition in the household services sector within a year, Quikr has restated its goodwill in the market.
Synergies with QuikrServices will help Zimmber to enter into newer markets. However, the startup will continue to operate as an individual brand without altering its business model. “I believe that offering our services to users in other Quikr verticals such as QuikrHomes, QuikrC2C and QuikrCars is a great opportunity,” said Amit Kumar, the co-founder of Zimmber.
The home services space has witnessed a massive consolidation lately. Zimmber too racked up FindYahaan to bolster its white collar service listings. Besides, it had also bought Dhulai, a Mumbai-based laundry service.
Early in 2015, Zimmber snapped up seed funding of an undisclosed amount from Investor Praveen Sinha, Alex Kuruvilla, Satyam Bansal and Vivek Khemka. Also, it secured a pre-Series angel funding worth $2 million from Omidyar Networks, IDG ventures and others.
Overall, Zimmber has received over $7.6 million from numerous Venture Capital (VC) companies, including IDG Ventures, Aarin Capital and Omidyar Network, along with Angel investors including MD of Pincap, Praveen Sinha and InMobi co-founders Naveen Tewari, Mohit Saxena and Amit Gupta.
In India, umpteen home-services startups have emerged in the recent times, but only a handful could secure VC funds. UrbanClap and Housejoy are amongst the majorly funded start-ups in the sector. UrbanClap, funded by Bessemer Venture Partners, SAIF Partners and Accel Partners, has received $35 million, whereas Housejoy, sponsored by Amazon.com Inc., Qualcomm Ventures and Matrix Partners has raised funds worth $26 million.
The domestic on-demand home services market is likely to grow from 2017 to 2022, featuring a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 47 percent by 2022. In addition, Quikr is gearing up to expand by branching out its operations under three new business verticals— real estate, automobiles and C2C sales.
Since there has been a rise in need for on-demand household services, the vertical is becoming quite popular among urban consumers. Given the dearth of time and the increasing work pressure, consumers are looking for convenient solutions to their daily household needs.
“By acquiring Zimmber, Quikr can build very strong home services vertical. Moreover, Zimmber can be of great help to enable Quikr to provide add-on services, e.g. electrician for the products sold,” said Investor Praveen Sinha about the acquisition.
“Given the competitive landscape and low investment sentiments this deal gives Zimmber a strong brand to get associated with while building on their core expertise,” he further added.