Why Service On Demand Startups Have Become Investors Favorite? Need + Market Opportunity (But Crowded)

Local services is a $100 Bn market, reports suggest. The huge market opportunity in this segment has led number of players foraying. Since past few months, number of startups have attracted funding and seems this trend is here to stay, as another startup named Workhorse, an app based service on demand startup based in Gurgaon has raised an undisclosed amount from a group of High Net Worth Individuals in Mumbai and Delhi. The company is also in talks to raise its next round to grow its presence in coming months.

Kamallendu Singh of Workhorse said, “We have launched a selective print campaign in Mumbai to announce the launch of our city operations in trial mode. In here, we urge our customers to try out our services and actively give us feedback to further customize the service offering and streamline the operations as per the local need. City trials are a way to adjust and customize our products to the need of a particular city.”

Company allows its customers to hire local services persons like, driver on demand or maid on demand are a boon for the middle class who can now get all the work done with a few taps. WorkHorse is currently operational in Mumbai and would soon be launching its operations in NCR.

It currently offers on-demand Maid (ranging from couple hours to a single day to a monthly basis), Cleaning (car wash, dry cleaning, sofa clean, carpet cleaning, deep cleaning of homes etc), Driver (ranging from 3 hrs to one day use to outstation travel to a monthly basis), Beautician, repair personnel (electrician, carpenter, plumber, gadget repair etc) and servicing solution like AC repair or other maintenance work.

The said funds will be used to ameliorate the product further and also strengthen the supplier base. Company also plans to scale up its operations and aim to expand to other cities as well.

The company aims to reach over 500 bookings a day in next few months, increasing operation and number of taskers every day.

Research shows that over 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 everyday. A lot of fundings have been advocated in this space. Recent Developments in this space are

• FindYahan, hyperlocal services marketplace, that has a platform which connects skilled individuals and home businesses to their target customers raised its Pre Series A of funding from The Phoenix Fund.
• LocalOye raised $5 Mn Series A funding from Tiger Global Management and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
• 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.

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