Acquisitions account for more than 50% of Quikr’s revenues

Quikr, the online classifieds portal, reports that ~55% of its revenues now are coming from the numerous small acquisitions company did in the last two years. The startup valued at more than $1 billion is aiming to breakeven by March’19. Besides the acquisitions, it has grown organically in five verticals namely jobs, real estate, automobiles, services and customer to customer (C2C). Pranay Chulet, CEO of Quikr, said that “Both, verticalization and acquisitions have been a game changer for us. If I had to do it again, I would. Worldwide, the classifieds space has either developed in terms of verticals or horizontals. Strong verticals have emerged across the world, but in India there are no clear leaders, except Naukri in white-collar jobs”.

Though real estate is the largest business segment for Quikr with 35% of annual revenues, the jobs segment is the dark horse for the company. It has almost build a monopoly in the blue-collar job market with the recent acquisition of Babajob has further strengthened its position in the space. The startup is trying to reduce its costs in a bid to become profitable. Sreedhar Prasad, partner for internet business and ecommerce at KPMG, said that “When it comes to an online classifieds company, the business model is much leaner than e-tailing and the path to profitability is relatively easier than commerce because the cost to service in the latter is much higher”.