Quikr, an India-based online classified listings service that counts several corporates among its investors, will shortly close a $150m round at a $1bn valuation, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
The round will include investment firm Tiger Global Management and alternative asset management firm Steadview Capital and could close as early as this week, a person familiar with the matter told the WSJ.
The WSJ’s article followed an earlier report by Indian finance news source the Economic Times, which placed the valuation at between $800m and $1bn.
Founded in 2008, Quikr runs a community classifieds platform on which users can post advertisements for a range of goods and services. A portion of the funding could be used by the company for acquisitions and strategic investments, a source told ET.
Quikr has so far raised almost $200m in funding, including $60m in a September 2014 series G round featuring Tiger Global, e-commerce company Ebay, Nokia Growth Partners, the corporate venturing unit of communications technology producer Nokia, Warburg Pincus, Omidyar Network, Kinnevik, Matrix Partners India and Norwest Venture Partners.
The series G round valued Quikr at $400m, and followed a $90m series E round six months earlier that was backed by Nokia Growth Partners, Ebay, Kinnevik, Matrix, Omidyar Network, Norwest and Warburg Pincus.