Lost unicorn status; Kinnevik marked it to ~$885M (2017) then ~$565M (2019); near-defunct with minimal cash by FY2022 and no new equity since 2019.
The rise & fall
6 moments · 2008–2022
The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.
2008
🌱
2008
Founded in Mumbai
Pranay Chulet launches a Craigslist-for-India spanning used goods, jobs, cars and property.
Wikipedia
2015
📈
2015
The peak: India's classifieds unicorn$1.5B
Tiger Global and Kinnevik back Quikr to a ~$1.5B valuation as it races to own every classifieds vertical at once.
Inc42
2017
2017
Kinnevik reaches for the red pen$885M
The Swedish backer marks its stake down to ~$885M as aggressive diversification sprawls and losses mount.
Inc42
2019
💔
2019
Marked out of the club
Kinnevik cuts the valuation to roughly $565M amid allegations of inflated revenue — and Quikr never raises equity again.
Inc42
2020–22
💬
From the inside · Glassdoor reviews, 2020–22
Glassdoor reviews captured the shrinkage from inside: employees described repeated downsizing, hardest in engineering, and hire-and-fire uncertainty — portraying a business that by the 2020s was merely keeping the lights on.
2022
2022
Down to its last million
By FY2022 the platform is running on roughly $1M of cash, fading toward collapse.
Inc42
💬 entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗; dated facts carry their source.
How it happened
Quikr was one of India's largest online classifieds platforms, founded in 2008, spanning jobs, autos, property and used goods. Tiger Global- and Kinnevik-backed, it reached unicorn status around a $1.5B valuation in 2015.
Aggressive diversification, mounting losses and later allegations of inflated revenue soured investors: Kinnevik marked it down to about $885M in 2017 and roughly $565M by 2019-20. With no new equity since 2019 and little cash left by FY2022, the platform faded toward collapse.
Source: Inc42 / Online Marketplaces (unicorn at ~$1.5B 2015 incl. Tiger Global and Kinnevik; Kinnevik markdowns to ~$885M in 2017 and ~$565M by 2019-20 amid revenue-inflation issues; ~$1M cash by FY2022, no equity raised since 2019)
