Online classifieds portal Quikr India Pvt. Ltd has acquired on-demand beauty and wellness service provider Zapluk (ZapForce Technologies Pvt. Ltd) for an undisclosed amount, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
The acquisition of Hyderabad-based Zapluk, which had raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from a clutch of investors, including the former Apple India CEO Alok Sharma, comes three months after Quikr India acquired Gurgaon-based on-demand beauty service provider Salosa (Beawel Tech Pvt. Ltd) in May.
Post the acquisition of Salosa, Quikr India rebranded its home beauty service as AtHomeDiva in July. The acquisition of Zapluk is expected to strengthen Quikr’s home beauty services, which have now been rolled out to Bengaluru, New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Gurgaon and Hyderabad.
The home beauty service is part of QuikrServices, one of the five verticals identified by Quikr last year to grow revenue.
Quikr is focusing on five key business segments—automobiles, real estate, jobs, services and customer-to-customer sales —it has identified as new sources of revenue and fend off competition from other venture capital-backed businesses that have emerged in each of these categories.
“Zapluk’s operational strengths, trained pool of stylists and professionals and highly engaged user base in the Chennai and Hyderabad markets will allow us to expand the reach of our AtHomeDiva brand in these markets rapidly. AtHomeDiva is growing fast and the number of services delivered by our team of trained and professional stylists is growing by more than 100% month on month. While we are experiencing a high repeat rate, what’s even better is the average transaction value is increasing steadily for repeat users,” P.D. Sundar, head of QuikrServices, said in a statement.
Quikr had earlier committed an investment of Rs.250 crore to strengthen its home services vertical.
Zapluk was founded by Manan Maheshwari and Mahesh Teja Gogineni in August 2015.
The firm had acquired Chennai-based competitor Pamperazi in June this year. Lavanya Hariharan, co-founder of Pamperazi, had subsequently joined Zapluk.
Following the acquisition by Quikr, Maheshwari and Gogineni will quit the company, but Hariharan will join Quikr.
Quikr is growing beyond a listing platform to a one-stop shop for used goods by enabling payments on its platform, as well as facilitating logistics, a move likely to throw open additional revenue channels at a time when a slowdown in external funding is prompting start-ups to reduce cash burn and focus on profitability.
The company has been investing aggressively to build the five verticals it has identified by both acquiring start-ups and making strategic investments, especially in the real estate segment. For instance, it acquired real estate portal Commonfloor (maxHeap Technologies Pvt. Ltd) for $120 million in January.
This apart, it has acquired Indian Realty Exchange (123 Startup Ventures Pvt. Ltd), a real estate agent aggregator, and RealtyCompass, a realty analytics start-up, besides making a strategic investment in A.N. Virtual World Tech Ltd, a company which provides 360-degree street views.
Quikr has so far raised $346 million from investors such as Tiger Global Management, Warburg Pincus and Norwest Venture Partners, among others and is currently valued at $1.5 billion.
Courtesy : Livemint.com
The acquisition of Hyderabad-based Zapluk, which had raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from a clutch of investors, including the former Apple India CEO Alok Sharma, comes three months after Quikr India acquired Gurgaon-based on-demand beauty service provider Salosa (Beawel Tech Pvt. Ltd) in May.
Post the acquisition of Salosa, Quikr India rebranded its home beauty service as AtHomeDiva in July. The acquisition of Zapluk is expected to strengthen Quikr’s home beauty services, which have now been rolled out to Bengaluru, New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Gurgaon and Hyderabad.
The home beauty service is part of QuikrServices, one of the five verticals identified by Quikr last year to grow revenue.
Quikr is focusing on five key business segments—automobiles, real estate, jobs, services and customer-to-customer sales —it has identified as new sources of revenue and fend off competition from other venture capital-backed businesses that have emerged in each of these categories.
“Zapluk’s operational strengths, trained pool of stylists and professionals and highly engaged user base in the Chennai and Hyderabad markets will allow us to expand the reach of our AtHomeDiva brand in these markets rapidly. AtHomeDiva is growing fast and the number of services delivered by our team of trained and professional stylists is growing by more than 100% month on month. While we are experiencing a high repeat rate, what’s even better is the average transaction value is increasing steadily for repeat users,” P.D. Sundar, head of QuikrServices, said in a statement.
Quikr had earlier committed an investment of Rs.250 crore to strengthen its home services vertical.
Zapluk was founded by Manan Maheshwari and Mahesh Teja Gogineni in August 2015.
The firm had acquired Chennai-based competitor Pamperazi in June this year. Lavanya Hariharan, co-founder of Pamperazi, had subsequently joined Zapluk.
Following the acquisition by Quikr, Maheshwari and Gogineni will quit the company, but Hariharan will join Quikr.
Quikr is growing beyond a listing platform to a one-stop shop for used goods by enabling payments on its platform, as well as facilitating logistics, a move likely to throw open additional revenue channels at a time when a slowdown in external funding is prompting start-ups to reduce cash burn and focus on profitability.
The company has been investing aggressively to build the five verticals it has identified by both acquiring start-ups and making strategic investments, especially in the real estate segment. For instance, it acquired real estate portal Commonfloor (maxHeap Technologies Pvt. Ltd) for $120 million in January.
This apart, it has acquired Indian Realty Exchange (123 Startup Ventures Pvt. Ltd), a real estate agent aggregator, and RealtyCompass, a realty analytics start-up, besides making a strategic investment in A.N. Virtual World Tech Ltd, a company which provides 360-degree street views.
Quikr has so far raised $346 million from investors such as Tiger Global Management, Warburg Pincus and Norwest Venture Partners, among others and is currently valued at $1.5 billion.
Courtesy : Livemint.com
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