19 August 2016, India :
Online classifieds firm Quikr India Pvt. Ltd has raised around Rs.130 crore from Brand Capital, the private treaty arm of media company Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd (BCCL).
With the investment in Quikr, BCCL will soon have an investment in three big home-grown consumer internet startups. The company is in advanced talks to pick up a small stake in Flipkart Ltd for Rs.500 crore and had picked up a stake in Snapdeal (Jasper Infotech Pvt. Ltd) in February this year, Mint reported on 4 June.
As part of the deal, BCCL will also have to publish ads in its media properties such as ET Now and Times Now channels and The Times of India and The Economic Times newspapers for a predetermined number of years, said the two people mentioned above, on condition of anonymity.
Quikr competes with OLX in the online classifieds segment. Founded in 2008 by Pranay Chulet and Jiby Thomas (who later left the firm), the company originally started as Kijiji India and then later rebranded to Quikr. It counts Tiger Global Management, Kinnevik, Warburg Pincus, Matrix Partners India, Norwest Venture Partners, Nokia Growth Partners, Steadview Capital, Omidyar Network and Ebay Inc as investors.