Omidyar Enters Indian Consumer Internet Market With Quikr

Yesterday, Mumbai-based online classifieds startup Quikr announced a Rs 20 crore Series B round of funding from Omidyar Network and existing investor Matrix Partners — see the press release here. The company had raised an undisclosed sum from Matrix in February last year. Online auction major eBay is also an investor in the firm. Incidentally, Quikr was earlier known as Kijiji and was a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay. The company, which started life as Kijiji in 2005, claims 1.5 million users per month and derives its revenues primarily through advertising. New media entrepreneur Pranay Chulet recently signed up as the company’s new CEO.

Omidyar Network is an interesting investor to bring on board. Quikr is the firm’s first consumer Internet investment in India. Started by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar (in photo) and his wife Pam in 2004, the firm is into philanthropic investments and has committed $293 million in various such businesses till date. This includes $136 million invested in for-profit ventures and $157 million as grants in not-for-profit ventures. It has been a fairly active investor in India over the past few years. Here’s a list of its other India and India-related investments:

• Catalyst Microfinance Investors: Private equity fund backed by Dhaka-based ASA and Amsterdam-based Sequoia (not to be confused with Sequoia Capital). Manages a capital pool of about $50 million. Invests in high-potential microfinance institutions in Asia and Africa and has its Asia headquarters in Dhaka. Counts over 55,000 clients in India. Omidyar invested $5 million in 2007. This is a for-profit venture.
• Sa-Dhan: Association of community development finance instititions. The organisation is based in New Delhi. It received $500,000 from Omidyar Network in 2006 and is a not-for-profit venture.
• Comat Technologies: Bangalore-based company that provides computer-based job training, financial services and digitized government documents to rural consumers in India. This is a for-profit venture and received $9.36 million from Omidyar in 2008.
• SONG Growth Company: Backed by Soros Economic Development Fund, Omidyar Network and Google, this is a for-profit, investment fund that puts money into small and medium enterprises in India. It invests between $750,000 and $3 million in a company. Omidyar invested $6 million in 2008.
• Rural Development Institute: Not-for-profit organisation that helps rural poor to obtain secure land rights. It is headquarterd in Seattle and has an office in Hyderabad. India is one of the ten countries in which it has operations. Omidyar invested $4.7 million in 2008.