QuikrServices acquires household services provider Zimmber in all-stock deal
Quikr, the leading cross category classifieds business, on Friday announced that it had acquired Zimmber, an on-demand household services provider, to further scale its hyperlocal household services business. While Quikr didn't disclose the financial nature of the acquisition, according to a report by LiveMint, the deal is estimated to be a $10 million all-stock deal.
With this strategic move, Quikr aims to accelerate its growth in household services and continue to progress towards its goal of organising this fragmented category. As part of this deal, Zimmber will exist as a brand under the Quikr umbrella, and it aims to benefit from synergies with QuikrServices and other Quikr verticals while also entering into newer markets.
Story so far
Founded in 2014 by Anubhab Goel, Amit Kumar, and Gaurav Shrivastava, Zimmber provides on-demand home services like plumbing, carpentry, pest control, deep cleaning, and sofa and carpet cleaning, among many others. The platform is available on mobile app, mobile website, and desktop website. Zimmber notes that it pre-checks all its service partners before enrolling them on the platform and further trains them to fill any gaps in professionalism and service quality.
The startup had earlier raised $2 million from leading investors like Omidyar Network, IDG, Aarin Capital, and Sherpalo Ventures, along with angel investors like Naveen Tiwari from Inmobi and Praveen Sinha from Jabong. The venture is currently operational in Bengaluru, MMR, NCR, and Pune. Zimmber claims to have around 1,500 service providers onboarded on the platform till date, with over one lakh customers served.
Quikr, on the other hand, is present in 1,000 cities in India, and operates several classifieds businesses across C2C, Cars, Education, Homes, Jobs, and Services. Quikr is accessible across mobile app, mobile website, and desktop, and allows consumers as well as small businesses to sell, buy, rent, and find things across its multiple categories. Quikr’s investors include Tiger Global Management, Kinnevik, Warburg Pincus, Matrix Partners India, Norwest Venture Partners, Nokia Growth Partners, Steadview Capital, and Omidyar Network.
Talking about the growing need for on-demand household services, P.D. Sundar, Head of QuikrServices, said that household services is an exciting category that is seeing increasing adoption among urban consumers. Given the paucity of time and the increasing level of stress in their everyday lives, consumers are seen looking for convenient and reliable solutions to their daily household needs.On the acquisition of Zimmber, he added,
The acquisition allows us to further scale our deep stack service capabilities and provide a superior service experience to Quikr users for their high frequency daily needs such as plumbing and cleaning. This category perfectly complements our existing marketplace solution for one-off service needs such as interior design and packers and movers.
Going forward and sector overview
The release noted that Zimmber will continue serving all its on-demand service customers with the same level of service quality. As part of the overall integration process, Amit Kumar, Co-founder and COO, and another founding member, Siddhartha Srivastava, CPO, will, along with the Zimmber team, continue to drive Zimmber's growth under the larger Quikr umbrella. The other founders will move on to pursue their interests. Amit said,
In addition to the synergies between Zimmber and QuikrServices, we also see a great opportunity in offering our services to users in other Quikr verticals such as QuikrHomes, QuikrC2C, and QuikrCars. Together, we will be serving a larger customer base with varied demands to bring more trust and efficiency to the hyperlocal services market.
With its verticalisation strategy and technology-based innovations, Quikr claims to have been growing both organically and inorganically. It has been steadily scaling each of its verticals, and has also made other acquisitions to further accelerate its growth.
- Under QuikrHomes, it acquired companies such as Grabhouse, Realty Exchange (IRX), Realtycompass, and CommonFloor in the last few months.
- Hiree was acquired under QuikrJobs.
- Under QuikrServices, it acquired beauty services company Stayglad, Salosa, and Zapluk, and subsequently launched its own beauty services brand, AtHomeDiva.
According to a recent report by Technavio, the global online on-demand home services market will grow steadily from 2017 to 2021 and post a CAGR of almost 49 percent by 2021. The report identifies the changes in consumer behaviour and the growth and accessibility of the smartphone market, by which the customers acquire information and book services, to be among the two main reasons for this growth. In India, Quikr competes with players like UrbanClap, Housejoy, and other regional and local players in this space.
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