New Delhi: Home services start-up UrbanClap has raised $50 million in a Series D funding round led by Steadview and existing investor Vy Capital that will help the company establish its lead in the home services.
UrbanClap Technologies Pvt. Ltd has raised roughly $60.7 million till date. It counts Bessemer Venture Partners, SAIF Partners, Accel and Ratan Tata among its existing investors. The new funding round comes after the Gurgaon-based company raised $21 million led by Vy Capital in June last year.
The four-year-old start-up will utilise the capital to boost customer and service partner on boarding, further building the product and technology team, and enhancing the supply chain of consumables, the company said in a statement.
Founded in 2014, UrbanClap helps users hire professionals for home services such as repair and maintenance, home cleaning, homecare and design, packers and movers, beauty, yoga and fitness among others across eight cities. Currently, the biggest segment on UrbanClap is beauty services, followed by appliance repairs, and house cleaning services. It has also entered into new categories such as pest control and home tutoring.
UrbanClap also plans to launch in tier-two cities in India, beginning with Chandigarh and Jaipur. The company forayed into UAE in April this year with five services.
“We have witnessed a phenomenal growth in UAE. On-demand cleaning services are popular because people there don’t have full time helps. We have seen a 100% growth in the last six months,” said Abhiraj Bahl, co-founder and chief executive officer over telephone.
UrbanClap will also offer liquidation of employees’ stock options (ESOPS) worth $4 million for its employees and early angels, it said in a statement.
The online home services segment includes players such as Amazon-backed HouseJoy in Bengaluru, Zimmber, was acquired by classifieds firm Quikr and Mumbai-based TimeSaverz.
UrbanClap is one of the few start-ups that attracted investor attention in the hyperlocal services segment and has been able to build a war-chest over the years as compared to peers. The sector has attracted deep pocketed investors such as Amazon, Bessemer Venture Partners, Vertex Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures among others.
While Housejoy has raised $27 million till date, Unilazer Ventures backed TimeSaverz managed $3.2 million in its kitty. To be sure, UrbanClap’s fresh funding will heave pressure on competitors.
The company has over 1 lakh trained service professionals on its platform, which it terms as “micro-entreprenuers’. Co-founder Raghav Chandra said that the company targets creating jobs for at least 1 million service professionals in the small and medium enterprise (SME) segment. It claims to multiply its professional earnings by 2X-3X.
“Their (UrbanClap’s) tech-centric approach of building quality supply in a trust-deficit market is solving a big consumer need, and enabling service professionals to be micro-entrepreneurs,” said Ravi Mehta, founder and managing partner of Steadview Capital.
The company’s operating revenue grew four times to ₹45 crore in FY 2017-18 from ₹11 crore in FY 2016-17. Its net losses reduced by 25% year-on-year to ₹50 crore in FY18. It claims to have served over 3 million customers across the country.
“We have grown 3x-4x over the past year and would continue with the same momentum ahead,” added Bahl.