Urban Co enters the unicorn club

Urban Company has raised $190 million from investors led by Prosus (formerly Naspers). The funding has more than doubled the Gurugram-based company’s valuation to $2 billion. In 2019, the firm was valued at $933 million after a funding round, led by Tiger Global. Urban Company has now become a unicorn (a start-up valued at more than $1 billion).

Urban Company has allotted 2,163 equity shares of ~1 at a premium of ~2,65,552.10 each, and 50,490 Series F compulsorily convertible cumulative preference shares (Series F CCPS) of ~10 at a premium of ~2,65,543.10 each, on a preferential basis, aggregating to ~1,410.2 crore or $190 million, show regulatory documents sourced from the business intelligence platform Tofler.

Besides Prosus, the other investors include DF International and Wellington Management. Founded in November 2014 by Abhiraj Bhal, Varun Khaitan and Raghav Chandra, Urban Company (formerly Urbanclap) is the largest home services company in India and the UAE.

It offers services like beauty and spa at home, cleaning, plumbing, carpentry, appliance repair and painting through its mobile app and website.

It has a partner network of over 30,000 hand-picked service professionals and operates in 18 cities of India, besides four international markets of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sydney and Singapore.

Urban Company is also backed by investors such as Accel Partners, Ratan Tata, and Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy.

Urban has become the 13th Indian start-up to become a unicorn in 2021.

Some of these include Chargebee, Gupshup, Sharechat, Groww, Pharmeasy, Cred and Meesho.