Quikr Mauritius, the holding company for free online classifieds business Quikr, has raised $6 million in a Series C, third round of funding, led by Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), and returning investors, Omidyar Network, Matrix Partners India and eBay Inc. In July last year, Quikr had raised Rs. 200 million in its Series B round; so far, it has raised in excess of Rs. 500 million in funding. Quikr competes with other free online classifieds businesses - Rediff LocalAds, Sulekha, Greynium owned Click.in, Nexus India Capital funded Olx.in, ClickIndia, HTClassifieds.com, among others. To say that the free online classifieds space in India is crowded, would be an understatement. Quikr offers a web-based classifieds platform covering 40 cities across India. It claims to be the largest player in this space, with over 8 million consumers visiting the site every month. At the time of its last round of funding, the company covered 18 cities in India, and claimed 1.5 million users. What has caused this free classifieds boom, where is the money being spent, how are these sites being monetized, and where will Quikr's investors get an exit? We'll try and get some answers from Quikr. Related: -- Classifieds Site OLX Raises $5 Million From Nexus India Capital -- Sulekha Asks Users To Pay a Tip; IPO May Not Happen; Consolidation On The Cards -- HT Media Launches Classifieds Site AskHT; Conflict Of Interest?
