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Gurgaon-based mobile services marketplace, UrbanClap, has raised $25 Mn (about INR 165 Cr.) in a Series B round of funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners and existing investors Accel and SAIF Partners. Earlier in June this year, the company had raised $12 Mn across two rounds from Saif and Accel Partners.
The startup is looking to further strengthen its position in the space and will thus utilise the funds mainly on expansion across all major cities in the country and increase its team size from current 300 to about 600. Currently, it is operational in Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai and Pune, and is looking to extend to 25 other cities and 100+ categories in next one year.
UrbanClap was founded by Varun Khaitan, Raghav Chandra and Abhiraj Bhal in October 2014. The startup provides a marketplace for two simple models, standardised blue collared services like electricians or home cleaning, and white collared services like photographers, interior designers, yoga instructors etc. To use the services, customers can directly book and pay on the app itself.
The startup takes in the customer requests with an automated match-making algorithm and helps them hire budget professionals, suited to meet their needs. It also does a background check and police verification for all its professionals. For this purpose, they have hired a retired superintendent of police.
Speaking on the development, Abhiraj Bhal, co-founder of UrbanClap said, “Today, we serve 5000 customer requests per day and have built a base of 20,000+ service professionals – who together represent the gold standard for trusted services in India. UrbanClap sends them business worth $200 Mn annually (current run rate), from small carpentry jobs worth INR 200, to a large interior designing assignments worth several lakhs. This is a winner take all market – there is no place for second best.” The company now aims to have over 200,000 professionals on its platform and serve over 100,000 customers every day.
Players in this space who have raised funding including Good-Service, Housejoy, Localoye, Zimmber, Taskbob, UrbanPro, Findyahan, Qyk and Timesaverz. Local Oye raised $5 million led by Tiger Global. Housejoy raised $4Mn in Series A funding from Matrix Partners. Zimmber raised $2 Mn.
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