In India, local services market is worth $100 Bn. To tap this market, there are a number of startups that have made an foray in this space and the recent fundings in this space, further validates the fact that, this space is going to get much more investor attention. Mumbai-based LocalOye is one such startup which is leveraging this $100 Bn market.
This mobile marketplace for hiring local service professionals has just announced that it has raised $5 Mn Series A funding from Tiger Global Management and Lightspeed Venture Partners. LocalOye will use the funds to aggressively scale nationwide and expand to more service categories.
The company was founded by Aditya Rao and Anupam Tulsyan (he left startup in 2014). Aditya, previously has worked with some of the top brands like Axe, IDBI, Pond’s etc. on digital products and marketing strategies. He graduated from BITS Pilani, and worked with many startups.
How it works
The current solutions are heavily dependent on a classifieds approach, with hundreds of listings and manual phone calls, which is a really frustrating experience for customers. LocalOye’s match-making approach eliminates this, making it hassle free for the customers. The LocalOye team does screening and personal verification of each service professional to ensure quality, assurance and fair pricing.
A merchant can look at details of the customer like budget, location, timings, preferences etc. and choose to accept the connection. This ensures very high reliability and trust for both the customers and merchants.
LocalOye was initially started as a venue discovery portal and it later expanded its offerings to cover services spread across 283+ categories including Fitness, Home Maintenance Services, Education, Beauty, Events etc. Currently, it operates in Mumbai.
Lee Fixel, Partner, Tiger Global Management, said:“LocalOye’s vision to bridge the online-to-offline services market in India is highly compelling for both consumers and businesses. We are very excited to support LocalOye in their expansion.”
LocalOye would be investing heavily in technology and building the team.
Related: Local Services Aggregation Startups In India – Going Beyond JustDial
Recent development in this space
- Gurgaon-based services marketplace Near.in had raised INR 1.8 Cr. from a group of investors investors including Anupam Mittal of Shaadi.com, and Manish Vij SVG Media.
- Bangalore-based professional services marketplace, Qyk, that aims at providing a solution to hire local service provider had raised undisclosed amount of angel funding from early investors of Ola, Housing.com and Delhivery.
- Delhi-based startup, Findyahan.com has 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).
Besides, there are other players in this space like Doormint, HouseJoy, TaskBob and Urbanclap who are still to get funded. As of no, Justail and Sulekha dominates the local services space.
LocalOye had previously raised undisclosed amount fromSidharth Rao (Co-founder Webchutney), Haresh Chawla (ex-Group CEO Network 18 and India Value Fund partner), and Sachin Bhatia (co-founder, MakeMyTrip).
