UrbanClap, India’s largest home services startup, raises $50M
UrbanClap, Indiau2019s largest home services startup, raises $50M UrbanClap, a four-year-old startup that offers home services across India, has closed a $50 million Series D round for expansion. The round was led by Steadview Capital, a hedge fund with more than $1 billion under management, and existing investor Vy Capital. It takes UrbanClap to $110 million raised to date, according to data from Crunchbase. Via its platform, UrbanClap matches service people, such as cleaners, repair staff or beauticians, with customers across 10 cities in India. Co-founder and CEO Abhiraj Bhal told TechCrunch that the business supports 15,000 u201cmicro-franchiseesu201d with around 450,000 transactions taking place each month. u201cMicro-franchiseesu201d is an interesting term u2014 Iu2019ve not heard it used much, even in the buzzword-heavy world of tech startups u2014 but Bhal explained his vision to enable service workers to earn more and enjoy greater control of their work and, consequently, overall life. For example, he said, the typical salary for an offline service worker might be in the region of 10-15,000 INR (up to $215) while, for those operating independently, their flow of work would be tied to a middleman, store or word of mouth networks. UrbanClap offers a more direct model, with workers keeping 80 percent of the cost of their jobs. That, Bhal said, means workers can earn multiples more and manage their own working hours. u201cThe UrbanClap model really allows them to become service entrepreneurs,u201d he said. u201cTheir earnings will shoot up two or three-fold, and it isnu2019t uncommon to see it rise as much as 8X u2014 itu2019s a life-changing experience.u201d Beyond helping workers with their job, UrbanClap also provides training, credit, basic banking and more. Bhal said that around 20-25 percent of applicants are accepted into the platform, thatu2019s a decision based on in-person meetings, background and criminal checks, as well as a u201cskillsu201d test. Workers are encouraged to work exclusively u2014 though it isnu2019t a requirement u2014 and they wear UrbanClap outfits and represent the brand with customers. While there is encouragement, there is also a level of monitoring. If a workeru2019s average review for their last 30/50 jobs (dependent on vertical) drops below 4.0, the system stops sending them work. There is an opportunity to appeal, retrain and return to the platform, except in cases of poor attitude, misconduct and other serious misdemeanors, Bhal said. He declined to provide numbers for dropouts but said that the retention rate is u201chealthy.u201d Read the complete article here https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/30/urbanclap-50-million/ Connect - https://paganresearch.io/details/urbanclap Know more about How UrbanClap grew one on-demand service at a time Tags - Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Abhiraj Bhal, Abhiraj Bhal Urbanclap, Abhiraj Bhal Email, Urbanclap CEO, Urban Company CEO, CEO Of Urbanclap, Urbanclap Founder, Urbanclap CEO Email
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