Urban Company, the India-based developer of a professional services ordering platform, has closed a $255m series F round co-led by internet group Prosus, Press Trust of India reported today.
The round was co-led by Prosus Ventures, the Prosus subsidiary formerly known as Naspers Ventures, with Dragoneer Investment Group and Wellington Management. It was filled out by Steadview Capital, Tiger Global and Vy Capital, and valued Urban Company at $2.1bn.
The round consisted of a $188m primary transaction revealed last month and a secondary sale of roughly $67m of shares by unnamed individuals and early backers, company co-founder and CEO Abhiraj Singh Bhal told PTI. Vy Capital had invested $5m in August 2020 to buy its employee stock options.
Founded in 2014 as UrbanClap, Urban Company provides a digital marketplace catering to home service providers based in its home country as well as Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Singapore, who can list services such as home maintenance and personal care.
The company has secured $330m in overall primary funding and is preparing internally to list in an initial public offering in the next 18 to 24 months, Bhal told ET.
Bhal said: “With this funding, we plan to rapidly scale our business while continuing to invest further in the safety of our consumers and service partners, training of partners and product development…We will continue to penetrate existing markets while venturing into new overseas geographies.”
Steadview, Tiger Global Management and Vy Capital were among the company’s earlier backers, as were Accel, Bessemer Venture Partners, Elevation Capital (previously known as SAIF Partners) and private investors including Kunal Bahl, Anjali Bansal, Rohit Bansal, Mekin Maheshwari and Ratan Tata.
