India’s Urban Company soars 58% above IPO price in year’s most subscribed offering | TechCrunch

City companiesIndia’s largest home service platform rushed into the public market on Wednesday, with an issue price of 58% higher after delivering the country’s best subscription IPO.

The Gurugram-based startup connects users to home services ranging from beauty care to equipment repairs, which debuted on the Mumbai-based National Stock Exchange at Rs 162.25 per share (about US$1.84) and has an IPO offering price of Rs 103. The product opened last week and was subscribed 100 times, meaning more than 100 times the orders placed by investors, indicating strong demand from institutional and retail investors.

Urban Company’s public listing also provided partial exit opportunities for early supporters, accelerating the biggest gains, followed by Heivation Capital and Tiger Global. Accel invests at an average cost of Rs 3.61 per share, with a potential profit of nearly 45 times, while the high-priced registration price is Rs 5.39 per share, about 30 times, while Tiger Global’s earnings are relatively small, with a relatively modest increase reported at about 1.3 times its cost base.

One of the main reasons for the success of the city company over the past decade is its ability to organize traditionally unorganized home services in India, including cleaning, plumbing, electrical work, massage and beauty therapy. By digitizing these products through its applications, the company has created an on-demand platform in a market that lacks standardization. In this sense, Urban Company enjoys a near monopoly position and remains the largest organized player in the field.

Before starting the $217 million public offering, Urban Company raised $97 million from anchor investors, including Goldman Sachs, Dragmaner Investment Group, Norges Bank, GIC, Nomura Amundi Funds, Steadview Capital, Prosus and Whiteoak. Domestic mutual funds, including SBI mutual funds, ICICI Prudential, Nippon and UTI, also participated in the IPO secondary round.

Founded in November 2014 by Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Varun Khaitan and Raghav Chandra, Urban Company operates in 59 cities in four countries, including India, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Saudi Arabia, and so far, India remains the largest market. The company plans to enter more than 200 cities by the end of the fiscal year 2030 to expand the reach of its home services.

Urban Company’s goal is to use net income primarily to technology development and cloud infrastructure, as well as rental payments for office space and marketing plans.