Urban Company to enter unicorn club with $2 Bn valuation

Home services firm Urban Company is in advanced talks to raise a new round from existing and new investors with over a 2X premium on its last valuation, said three people aware of the details of the transaction. 

If the talks lead to a deal, the seven-year-old firm will turn into a unicorn. 

According to Fintrackr’s estimates, the company was valued north of $933 million during its last fundraise of $75 million in its Series E round led by Tiger Global in August 2019.

“There has been a lot of interest in the company from internal investors including Tiger Global, Vy Capital and Steadview Capital. New investors such as Falcon Edge, or its related firm AWI, is also in talks to join the round that may go up to $150 million,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity.

The talks with Falcon Edge may or may not materialise, said sources. 

“The round is almost certain in which Urban Company will be valued in the range of $2 billion, ” said the second person who also wished not to be named. 

Responding to Entrackr’s queries, Urban Company said they don’t comment on market speculation. Queries to Falcon Edge, Steadview and Vy Capital didn’t elicit any immediate response. 

The increased appetite of investors in Urban Company comes in the backdrop of the firm having established itself as a leader in the home services space. The company 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 fiscal ending March 2020. Despite the pandemic, the company is likely to have closed FY21 with over Rs 400 crore in revenue, said the people cited above.

To date, Urban Company has raised over $180 million across five institutional rounds. Accel, Ratan Tata, Elevation Capital (previously SAIF Partners), Bessemer Venture Partners are its other backers. 

Urban Company operates in over two dozen Indian cities besides overseas operations in cities such as Sydney, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Riyadh. The company claims to have over 25,000 professionals on its platform serving around 50 lakh customers.

Credit: Jai Vardhan