Urban Company’s Unicorn Funding: Why is Urban company unhappy with Media Houses

On-demand service marketplace Urban Company has become the 12^th unicorn of 2021 after it came to light that the company has raised $190 Mn in a series F round led by Naspers (now known as Prosus). The round also had the footprint of the existing investor Tiger Global whose pugmarks on India’s unicorn map is increasing by every passing week. Other existing investors Steadview Capital and Vy Capital equally took part in the series F round, which valued the company around $2Bn.

While this news should be cause of much celebration for Urban Company, the company is apparently fuming over media houses for reporting its unicorn funding. The newly crowned startup cited that this pleasant news coincides with the unprecedented COVID crises, which has currently engulfed the country.

The thing is that the Bengaluru based startup did not officially announce about its Series F round. The news of the company’s unicorn funding round was broken by few media houses after picking its MCA regulatory filings. Entrackr was amongst the first media house to break Urban Company’s unicorn funding, later other prominent media houses like INC42, Money Control, and Economic Times followed the suit.

Urban Company’s co-founder Abhiraj Singh Bhal took to his Twitter handle to express his displeasure. Going by his tweet, it seems that Bhal was especially anguished over the fact that some media houses had reached him for seeking his comments on the latest funding. Bhal categorically said that Urban Company’s $190Mn funding is currently the least important news amid the COVID crises. He further added that the Urban Company’s entire team is currently involved in the COVID support.

Urban Company is one of the few startups that has been passionately chased by the investment community. The investment community’s great interest in the Bengaluru-based company is hardly surprising given that it is one of the few profitable startups out there. The company showed revenue of Rs 263 crore in Fy20 while its losses stood at nearly Rs 155 cr for the same period.