Bessemer Venture and SAIF Partners funded start-up Urbanclap plans to launch its services in international markets such as Middle East and South East Asia in 2017, CEO Varun Khaitan.
“We are following a model of very less feet on street. This gives the agility of launching in any city faster. Thus, launching in a Dubai or a Dehradun becomes almost the same”, says Khaitan. He declined to give a timeline of the international launch.
Initially, the company is likely to target markets such as Singapore, Indonesia and Dubai. A team will travel to these cities to set up a base and partner with service providers. The company has enrolled expert technicians to test the service providers and is conducting a background check on them. In November 2015, UrbanClap raised about USD 25 million in Series B round of funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from existing investors SAIF and Accel Partners.
Prior to that, the start-up had raised USD 12 million from SAIF and Accel Partners. It also received an undisclosed amount as angel investment from Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata. UrbanClap provides plumbers, carpenters, electricians, home cleaning services, yoga trainers, et al through its app. It competes with the likes of TaskBob, JustDial, HouseJoy, ZImmber, etc in the nascent and upcoming on-demand home services market.
Most of the app based players charge a commission per lead or order passed on to the service provider. JustDial charges an annual subscription charge to the service providers.
“We have also seen recent categories such as nannies doing well in India besides the high ticket services such as photographers and yoga teachers”, says Khaitan.
The company employs about 300 people in India with its headquarters in Gurgaon. Earlier, companies such as Practo and redBus have also launched services in South East Asia under the aggregation model. Recently, many home services market players have closed down due to higher customer acquisition costs and lower demand especially in smaller towns of India. UrbanClap recently acquired its smaller rivals such as HandyHome and GoodService, who were struggling.
“We are all in a stage where we are trying to create the market. Most of these were acqui-hires”, Khaitan said.
JustDial is the biggest rival for all such players in this market as it has already registered the bigger service provider companies or individuals, and operated on the easier voice call model.
Source: moneycontrol
Image Courtesy: Notey
