[Funding alert] Urban Company enters unicorn club with $2B valuation, following $188M fund raise

Urban Company, the home services marketplace startup, has raised $188 million in its latest funding round led by Prosus, show the regulatory filings by the startup.

The latest fundraise by Urban Company also saw the participation of two new investors – DF International and Wellington Management. The startup is now valued at around $2 billion, according to reports.

According to filings made with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Urban Company issued 2,613 equity shares and 50,490 compulsory convertible preference shares (CCPS). This latest round of capital infusion takes Urban Company into the coveted unicorn club as it was last valued at around $933 million during its funding round in 2019.

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Formerly known as UrbanClap, Urban Company is backed by marquee investors such Tiger Global, Accel, and Elevation Capital (formerly known as SAIF Partners), among others. Ratan Tata and Kalyan Krishnamurthy are among the leading angel investors.

Urban Company becomes the 12th startup from India to have entered the coveted $1 billion valuation club this year. The total number of unicorns for the current year till now has surpassed that of the last year, when the country produced 11 such entities.

The startups from India which joined the unicorn club this year are: Digit Insurance, Innovaccer, Infra.Market, Five Star Finance, Meesho, CRED, Pharmeasy, Groww, ShareChat, Gupshup, and Chargebee.

Eight of these unicorns emerged in the month of April itself.

Urban Company's latest funding round saw the collective stake of its three co-founders — Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Varun Khaitan, and Raghav Chandra diluted to 24.66 percent.

In March 2021, Urban Company Co-founder Varun Khaitan told PTI in an interview that it aims to onboard over 20,000 professionals on its platform this year to meet the strong growth in demand for various services post the lockdown. Currently, the company has more than 40,000 gig workers on its platform, of which over 35,000 are present in India. Of the total base of gig workers on the platform in India, more than one-third are women working as beauticians and massage therapists.