Urban Company: From Rs 57 lakh investment to Rs 110 crore exit: Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal clock bumper return from Urban Company share sale

Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, founders of ecommerce firm Snapdeal and investment fund Titan Capital, have exited at-home services platform Urban Company, bagging a nearly 200 times return on their nine-year-old seed cheque. They sold their stake to Vy Capital’s offshoot Dharana Capital which made a $50 million secondary transaction at the Gurugram-based firm.

Bahl and Bansal, who had invested Rs 57 lakh in 2015, made the full exit that closed earlier this month with aggregate proceeds of Rs 111 crore, according to people aware of the transaction.

Besides the Titan Capital founders, some employees also offloaded their stock options as part of the secondary deal. Vamsi Duvvuri, founder and managing partner of Dharana Capital, will join the Urban Company board as a non-executive director.

Bahl confirmed the exit from Urban Company to ET, without divulging details.

Some of the other investments where Titan Capital has made returns, including unrealised, of 100 times or more include Ola Cabs, OfBusiness and Credgenics. While the duo fully exited Ola Cabs, they made a part-exit from Credgenic and continue to hold shares in OfBusiness.

“Urban Company has built an enduring and growing business with a strong foundation. We have been fortunate to be part of this journey from its earliest days and immense credit is due to Abhiraj (Singh Bhal), Varun (Khaitan) and Raghav (Chandra) and their team for building it with great determination, resilience and foresight,” Titan Capital said in a statement.

100% of the gains from our Urban Company investment will be redeployed to fund the next generation of founders and in helping build and grow a stellar future cohort of Indian startups, as per Bahl and Bansal.

The Snapdeal founders have made angel investments in 300 startups, deploying their personal capital via Titan Capital. Recently, they raised Rs 200 crore from limited partners or sponsors in funds to double down on Titan’s big bets.

Last year, the duo sold shares worth around Rs 78 crore through the initial public offering of Honasa Consumer, the parent company of Mamaearth. At the issue price of Rs 324 per share, Bahl and Bansal saw a return multiple of over 100 times on the per share weighted average acquisition cost of Rs 3.21 per share. Here too, they said that they would reinvest their entire gains from the investment into other startups.

Titan Capital has an executive team which also now scouts for investments in early-stage startups.

Both Bahl and Bansal are also the promoters of ecommerce enterprise software developer Unicommerce, which is set to go public after having secured the market regulator’s approval.

Recently, Titan Capital invested in startups like Boba Bhai, a quick-service restaurant brand specialising in bubble tea and other food items, smart appliances startup Karban Envirotech and devotional platform DevDham.

According to Bhal, Urban Company recorded Rs 282-283 crore in revenue so far for the April-June period this year with the quarter logging a profit before tax . The company is expected to turn profitable in FY25.

For FY23, it reported a 45% year-on-year jump in operating revenue to Rs 637 crore. Its loss before taxes for the year narrowed to Rs 308 crore compared with Rs 514 crore in FY22.

The company has not yet filed its financial statements for the fiscal year ended March 2024.