Urban Company Founders Offload Shares Worth INR 779 Cr Ahead Of IPO

Ahead of filing its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP), consumer service unicorn Urban Company’s founder cumulatively sold shares worth nearly INR 779.08 Cr in secondary deals.

As per the company’s DRHP, Abhiraj Bhal, Varun Khaitan and Raghav Chandra offloaded shares worth INR 259 Cr each between September 2024 and March 2025. The company filed its DRHP with SEBI for an INR 1,900 Cr IPO yesterday (April 28). 

In multiple transactions, the founders sold these shares to Urban Company’s existing backers, including Prosus Ventures, Dharana Capital, Think Investments, former ITC executive Sanjiv Rangrass, SailThru Ventures and Swiggy’s cofounder and CEO Sriharsha Majesty.

Currently, each of the three founders holds a 6.67% equity in the company, which translates into a cumulative shareholding of 20.1%.

The founders will not sell shares through the offer-for-sale (OFS) route during the IPO.

Besides the founders, the company’s early backers, including Bessemer India Capital, Accel India (Fund IV) and Tiger Global Management (Internet Fund V), have offloaded shares in the run-up to the public listing.

Meanwhile, the company’s public issue will comprise a fresh issue of shares of up to INR 429 Cr and an OFS component of up to INR 1,471 Cr. This is 37% less than the previously reported IPO size of INR 3,000 Cr.

The unicorn plans to utilise INR 190 Cr of the fresh proceeds towards technology development and cloud infrastructure. It will also deploy INR 70 Cr for lease payments for its office and INR 80 Cr for marketing activities.

As per the company’s DRHP, existing backer Accel will offload shares worth INR 433 Cr during the public listing, while Tiger Global and Elevation Capital will sell shares worth INR 303 Cr and INR 346 Cr, respectively. 

On the financial front, Urban Company posted a profit before tax of INR 27.1 Cr in the first nine months of the fiscal year 2024-25 (FY25) versus a loss before tax of INR 57.8 Cr in the year-ago period. Meanwhile, the company’s operating revenue jumped 41% to INR 846 Cr during the period under review from INR 601 Cr in the first nine months of FY24. 

In FY24, Urban Company managed to trim its net losses by 70% to INR 92.77 Cr from INR 312.48 Cr in FY23. Besides, its operating revenue also surged 30% to INR 827 Cr in the year under review from INR 637 Cr in FY23.

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