Urban Company gets shareholder nod for IPO, slashes primary fundraise to Rs 528 crore

Urban Company gets shareholder nod for IPO, slashes primary fundraise to Rs 528 crore

Home services startup Urban Company has received approval from its board of directors to raise Rs 528 crore (roughly $60 million) in fresh capital via an initial public offering (IPO), according to filings made with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

“The company intends to list its equity shares on one or more stock exchanges to enable the shareholders to have a formal marketplace for dealing with such equity shares. The company proposes to create, offer, issue and allot fresh equity shares of the Company bearing face value Rs 1 each up to an aggregate of Rs 528 crore ($60.6 million),” the RoC filing, sourced via TheKredible, stated.

The Accel-backed company had initially planned file draft papers for a potential Rs 3,000-crore IPO this year. However, its current target size is over 80 percent smaller. According to people familiar with the matter, the IPO size has been slashed due to volatile market conditions.

The firm, which has reportedly selected Kotak Mahindra Capital, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to manage the public issue, is expected to file its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with market regulator SEBI in the immediate future.

Driven by India’s buoyant public markets, as many as 13 startups went public in 2024. This number was expected to significantly increase in 2025, with more than 25 startups queuing up to IPO this year. However, volatile market conditions, brought about by the US tariff war, may push many of these companies to reassess their listing plans.

Urban Company’s listing plans come shortly after the startup ventured into India’s rapidly growing quick commerce market through its new offering Insta Maids – a 15-minute maid booking service.

This includes services like utensil cleaning, brooming and mopping, cooking preparation, etc., carried out by maids who are paid by the hour.

To date, Urban Company has raised as much as $376 million in funding across 12 rounds, and was last valued at $2.5 billion, as per data from Tracxn – a market intelligence platform. The company’s last major fundraise came in 2021, when it picked up $255 million in a round led by investors such as Prosus, Dragoneer and Wellington Management.

The home services and beauty salon marketplace has a presence across over 30 cities in India along with operations in foreign markets, including Singapore and Saudi Arabia. The platform, which connects gig workers with home services, is clocking 2.2 million average monthly orders with an average order value of Rs 1,290.

Urban Company claims to operate with 57,000 partners, who managed to deliver 23 million services on the platform in FY24.