HouseJoy Launches HouseJoy Assist Amid Setbacks Over Layoffs

Making a comeback from recent setbacks over reports of laying off 40 employees in the midst of a financial crunch, Amazon-backed on-demand home service provider Housejoy has announced the launch of Housejoy Assist for its Bengaluru customers. The new service enables customers to avail of multiple booking services simultaneously with the help of a relationship manager.

On the launch, Saran Chatterjee, CEO of Housejoy, said, “Housejoy Assist is designed to get done numerous services simultaneously. Common scenarios being moving houses or an upcoming wedding or just lots of built-up problems. It allows to book a number of services simultaneously, each coordinated and managed seamlessly by a dedicated relationship manager.”

Founded in 2015, Bengaluru-based hyperlocal service Housejoy provides services ranging from maintenance and home repairs, plumbing, electrical services, laundry, home cleaning and computer repairs, among others. The company is expanding its service portfolio across fives cities.

The startup has till date raised $27 Mn in funding, including a Series A round of $4 Mn from Matrix Partners in June 2015. In February 2016, Housejoy also acquired online laundry services player MyWash for an undisclosed amount. Later that month, it also acquired an at-home personal fitness tech startup Orobind for an undisclosed amount.

The startup earlier shut down some of its categories, such as specialised lifestyle and health services, because of low-profit margins, and was reportedly looking to transform the platform to a marketplace model. At the same time, it was also reported that Housejoy has reduced its operational focus from 12 cities to five major markets: Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.

In addition, last year in May, co-founders Arjun Kumar and Sunil Goel quit the company in the wake of a board-executed decision and were replaced by CEO Saran Chatterjee, a former Flipster.

According to Inc42 Datalabs, more than 400 startups entered the hyperlocal market space from 2011 to 2016. Out of these, about 193 were funded and raised more than $1 Bn funding in total and over 100 were shut down.

Amid tough competition in the hyperlocal industry with players like UrbanClap on the fray, how HouseJoy will scale-up its services would be an interesting watch.