In Startup50 2016: For delivering gross services worth Rs. 2 crore per day, and for traction in terms of user growth & having over 1.5 million app downloads. 

Founders: Abhiraj Bhal (In Pic), Varun Khaitan And Raghav Chandra

UrbanClap is an app-based service marketplace that connects customers to service professionals. It was incorporated in 2014 as a mobile and online services marketplace for urban residents in India.  It helps customers find the right service professionals for activities (local services) under categories such as salon at home, yoga at home, fitness training, utility services (plumbers, electricians, carpenters, cleaners, pest control and appliance repair) and tutors (Academic and Non-Academic).

With a team of around 330 people and a presence in seven cities including New Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, UrbanClap has almost 20,000 registered professionals and offers 60 to 65 services as of now.

It currently serves around 5,000 customer requests on a daily basis and has recently entered the Pune market. This app has been installed in around 1.1 million android phones and 350,000 iOS phones.

Scale up factor

While the company was initially set up with funds from the founders, it eventually raised funds from private equity companies a year later. In December 2015, Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, invested in the company in his personal capacity. In November, the company raised US $25 million in a Series B round led by Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from existing investors SAIF and Accel Partners. Earlier this year, UrbanClap raised US $12 million across two rounds from SAIF, Accel Partners and founders of Snapdeal.   The company plans to utilise these funds to increase its team size to 600 and add new service categories such as academic tutors and so on. It also plans to enter new cities by taking its services to almost 30 cities by the end of next financial year. It aims to serve around 40,000 to 50,000 customers a day by next financial year from the current count of 3,500 customers.

Differentiators

Its demand services (salon, utility) are managed end-to-end by the company and it offers guarantees of up to Rs.5, 000. The company’s marketing efforts are directed to create a brand presence. The team believes that it’s more important for customers to recall its brand when they have a need rather than creating a need in the mind of the customer through an ad. This has succeeded in creating loyalty and increasing its repeat percentage.

Facts in numbers:

Rs. 2 crore

(Gross worth of services delivered per day)

1.5 million

(No. of app downloads so far)

20,000

(Number of professionals registered on the platform)

5,000

(Customer requests per day)