Urban Company (formerly known as Urban Clap) is a home service company that focuses on beauty and massage, appliance repair, plumbing, carpentry, cleaning, and painting. After raising money from Tiger Global, Vy Capital, and Steadview, the company has just raised close to $190 million in a new round led by Prosus (previously Naspers). According to Fintrackr’s estimates, Urban Company has reached a post-money valuation of close to USD 2 billion. The Gurugram-based company was valued at around $933 million in its last financing round in 2019.
Urban Company is thus the latest Indian startup to enter the coveted unicorn club. It has become the twelfth Indian startup to turn into a unicorn in 2021 and the seventh in April. So far, Chargebee, Gupshup, ShareChat, Groww, PharmEasy, CRED, and Meesho have entered the unicorn club this month.
According to the filings, Prosus has invested $61.93 million, DF International $37 million, and Wellington Management $33.2 million, giving them a 3.18%, 1.90%, and 1.7% stake, respectively.
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, regulatory filings show.
Following the funding round, Urban Company’s co-founders, Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Varun Khaitan, and Raghav Chandra have had their stake diluted to a collective share of 24.66%. Elevation Capital is the largest stakeholder in the company with a 14.56% stake followed by Accel and Vy Capital with 14.40% and 12.66% stake respectively. Prosus, which led the Series F round, has a 3.18% stake in the company.
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Urban Company operates in over two dozen Indian cities along with 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. It had doubled its revenue to Rs 263 crore in FY20 from Rs 132.04 crore in FY19. Its losses stood at Rs 155 crore during the year ending March 2020. Despite the pandemic, the company is likely to have closed FY21 with over Rs 400 crore in revenue in the last fiscal (FY21).
According to Fairwork India Ratings 2020: Labour Standards in the Platform Economy, which ranks some of the prominent Indian companies based on the working conditions prevalent there for temporary workers, Urban Company was one of the best places to work for gig economy workers. The company ranks at the top with a score of 8 out of 10, where as Zomato, Swiggy and Uber scored a ranked at the bottom with 1 out of 10.
