Exclusive: Catering The Service Providers Industry, With More Than 1 lakh Users In Kitty, This Startup Just Got Funded

People organising or planning for a party, event or something often face a problem while finding a service provider; be it a caterer, a DJ or any other service for that matter. To find one perfect service provider who aligns well with the needs is really a tiresome task. One has to go through a hundred calls to finalise all the vendors.

Research shows that more than 1200 Cr. searches are being done on daily basis by the people looking for service providers and over 6 Lakh service providers are being contacted daily. Companies like JustDial, Sulekha are among the ones which have tried their best to bring all of them under one platform, but, however, the problem still remains. Adding on, while reaching out for the service providers, the person has to share contact details and later he/she is spammed with unwanted calls for a number of days.

After looking at this and facing some similar problems, Rachit Mathur, a Graduate from York university who has been internet entrepreneur for almost 8 years and Snehil Khanor, who has previously consulted startups TrulyMadly, Printland.in, among others,  launched FindYahan.com.

“We like to take away all the hassle out of the process of hiring a best service provider. We just ask you to fill out a small requirement form and then our expert & verified service providers send you a quote and then you can compare their quotes, prices, verification level, review ratings and you can also see if they are connected to any of your friend on social media. We help user to take an informed decision without harassing him with hundreds of calls,” tells Snehil.

This Delhi based startup has recently grabbed angel funding led by Karan Bajwa (MD, Microsoft India) along with Parvesh Bareja (Director, HeliosPacks), Sunjay Kapur (MD, Sona Koyo Steering), and Amanpreet Bajaj (Ex Cofounder, Letsbuy.com) also participating in the round.

The Idea

FindYahan is a marketplace where you can find reliable and verified service providers in your area, basically it is a location based skill discovery platform and marketplace for skills and services. Users can easily find vendors on the social network or service providers whom their friends have already worked with or are friends with. Not just this, one can even request the services they want and the vendors will contact them with their best quotes and offers for the same.

“This is a very interesting space, and is need of the hour.. they are trying to do with the services what we did to the products.. I like the team and product very much and have been mentoring them since day 1. I loved what they have built till now so decided to participate in the round,” says Amanpreet Bajaj.

How it works

When a user posts a request, FindYahan shares the lead with the seller without disclosing the contact info of the requester. The service provider then buys the lead and sends a personalised quote to the requester only if he is sure that he can fulfill the particular requirement on particular date and specified budget.

Then, the requester can compare prices, reviews, ratings and profiles of various sellers and hire the best!

Let’s talk the money

The company sells lead packages to the seller. Whenever a request is created, it appears on the seller dashboard of nearby service providers of that category. The contact details of the requester are not shared with the service provider until he buys the lead. When he buys the lead, lead balance is deducted from his wallet. This allows service provider to spend only on leads that he knows he can confidently fulfil and therefore have better chances of converting. With this model, even home based service providers like home bakers and home cooks can buy leads and have more bang for their buck vs on platforms where they have to pay huge amounts annually which they can not afford.

The competition

There are startups like Skillkindle, Skillhippo, Flexing It, etc. who are also operating in the same space. “Its still a very nascent stage. All direct competitors are very young and we have been into this for more than a year now so we do have first mover advantage and a little more learnings and lessons in our bag. Rest we will all know with time. But this sure is a very interesting and promising space to keep a watch on,” said Snehil.

Cracking the numbers

Launched just 15 Months back, FindYahan already has more than 1 lakh users. “We have on-boarded more than 4000 service providers and have till now generated 20K+ leads,” tells Snehil.

The startup currently is operational in Delhi/NCR. Hitesh Dhingra of LetsBuy, Rajatish Mukherjee, SVP, Godaddy are also in the advisory board of FindYahan. It has recently launched an Android App and moving forward, it also has plans to launch an iOS app.

The startup plans to use the funds raised for marketing and building technology. Further, it plans to add in more categories.