Quikr, India’s No. 1 cross category classifieds business, has acquired Stepni, a platform that connects vehicle owners with service providers nearest to them. The strategic move strengthens the company’s service offerings under QuikrCars, its vertical that focuses on all types of automobiles including cars, bikes and commercial vehicles. It also opens cross-selling opportunities for QuikrServices, the company’s vertical that provides a range of services to consumers.
Founded by Vinay Singh & Nikhil Nair in October 2015, Stepni has helped thousands of consumers with their vehicle servicing needs in Bangalore through a partner network of over 125 service centers across the city.
Talking about the acquisition, Atul Tewari, Head of QuikrCars and COO, Quikr said, “At QuikrCars, we believe there is an acute need and a large opportunity for someone to innovate in the auto buying selling space in India. Over the last couple of years, we have turned QuikrCars into the country’s leading auto platform that cuts across new and used car transactions – in new cars, we are working closely with OEMs to address their marketing needs, and in used cars, we are by far the no. 1 destination for inspected, consumer-owned cars. Stepni’s business model will now allow us to develop a longer term relationship with car owners as opposed to only at the point of buying-selling. We plan to scale vehicle maintenance services to all major cities over the next three months.”
Stepni’s founders and team will join QuikrCars with immediate effect. The overall platform integration will help QuikrCars consumers shortlist service providers that can ensure the best service for their vehicle within 5 kms of their location.
“Teaming up with Quikr brings tremendous possibilities for our business model on the demand side and it will help to scale the platform seamlessly across multiple cities. We look forward to combining our experience in the vehicle maintenance domain with Quikr’s scale and reach to make vehicle services convenient and affordable for all,” said Vinay Singh, Co-Founder, Stepni.
QuikrCars has over 1.5MM vehicles listed on its platform across India. It has the largest inventory of consumer inspected vehicles on its platform along with feature comparisons across models. It also offers RTO assistance and a localized discovery module that shows recently posted and trending vehicle models around a particular location.
Since last year, Quikr has made several acquisitions. QuikrHomes has acquired Realty Exchange (IRX), Realtycompass and CommonFloor and made a strategic investment in A N Virtual Tech. QuikrServices has acquired beauty services companies Salosa and Zapluk. QuikrJobs has acquired Hiree to expand into white collar jobs.
About Quikr
Quikr is India’s largest and broadest classifieds platform that is used by over 30 million unique users a month. It is present in 1000 cities in India and operates several large classifieds businesses across C2C, Cars, Education, Homes, Jobs and Services. Quikr is accessible across mobile app, mobile site as well as desktop, and allows consumers as well as small businesses to sell, buy, rent and find things across its multiple categories with great ease. Quikr’s investors include Tiger Global Management, Kinnevik, Warburg Pincus, Matrix Partners India, Norwest Venture Partners, Nokia Growth Partners, Steadview Capital, Omidyar Network, and Ebay Inc.
About Stepni
Stepni is an online platform that connects vehicle owners with service providers like mechanics, garages, car accessory outlets etc. around them. It is a platform intended to help make the process of car & bike maintenance more efficient thereby reducing cost for the consumer and at the same time raise the earning potential of mechanics & garages. It was founded in Bangalore by IIM-B alumus, Vinay Singh & IIM-A alumnus Nikhil Nair in Oct 2015
