Lokal raises 120 crore in Series B funding round

Chennai: Hyperlocal content, community and classifieds platform Lokal has raised 120 crore in a Series B funding round from new investors Global Brain and Sony Innovation Fund, with participation from India Quotient and other existing investors. The funds have been raised at an increased valuation from the previous round, but the company did not disclose its current valuation.The startup will use the fresh funds to grow in existing markets, launch new categories and product capabilities, and further strengthen the product and technology teams. Including the current funding round, the startup has raised over 225 crore in funding overall and has 110+ employees.Launched in 2018, Lokal provides users from tier 2 and beyond with hyperlocal information such as daily updates, commodity prices, local jobs, real estate, matrimonial, business advertorials, and classifieds etc. These would otherwise be scattered across local newspapers in vernacular languages, the startup notes. With over 40 million downloads across seven Indian states (Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Gujarat) over the past five years, Lokal claims 10x higher response rates in comparison to other alternatives for posting local jobs, matrimonials, real estate listings and local ads. Jani Pasha, founder and CEO, Lokal told TOI that classifieds listings on the platform are growing 20%-25% month-on-month. “Our monetisation is primarily from users/businesses promoting their classified listings and broadcasting their local advertisements to people in their city, and town. We also have subscription packages for classifieds,” Pasha said. We have achieved profitability in two of the seven states we operate in, he added.