Rocket’s Uber for cleaners Helpling moves into pole position in Singapore with acquisition

When Rocket Internet-backed ventures move into countries, they move swiftly and decisively. Case in point: “Uber for professional cleaners” Helpling has been in Singapore for barely a few weeks now, and already it has “taken care” of one of its local competitors, Spickify, by doing what it does best – acquiring it.

Spickify’s co-founder and CEO Hoe Yeen Teck will join Helpling as its new country manager. Its entire operations team will also be moving over. The other three co-founders – Steven Chan, Akmal bin Abdul Rahman, and Soon Yin Jie – will however not be joining as they were focused on the technical components of Spickify, and Helpling has its own global development team.

Helpling Singapore’s new country manager, Hoe Yeen Teck.

In a statement, Helpling claims that this will make it “the largest player for on-demand household services in Singapore,” with roughly 150 cleaners on its platform. When Spickify was launched in July last year, it claims that its rate of bookings multiplied rapidly. “It continually increased at about 20 to 30 percent week-on-week […] We often found ourselves limited by availability of cleaners at certain time slots and job areas,” recalls Hoe.

Not bad for a startup that started out as a community project. “The [initial] idea was to match low income residents in the area with nearby condo customers who needed home cleaning services,” says Hoe. “The pilot with the local community organizers was quite successful, so we decided to scale up and across the country. The results were really encouraging and we did not expect the rate of pick-up to be so strong.”

Since launching a month ago, Helpling has also seen high demand for its services in Singapore “where the bookings and completed jobs has since tripled,” which is far more than in other countries.

Solving a local problem

Spickify came about as a result of Hoe’s negative experience in finding a part-time cleaner two years back. He went through what he calls “the usual hassles,” such as trawling internet forums and asking all his friends in his phone contact list for referrals. Hoe ended up calling a few “agencies” who actually “sent in illegal domestic workers for a S$150 (US$108) agency fee.”

Over the past year, Hoe not only increasingly saw the need for on-demand cleaners, he also realized that Spickify could create jobs for locals who are looking for flexible positions. “We believe that there is a large pool of individuals who, for various reasons, do not want to consider full-time jobs but are available for part-time or work-as-you-like engagements,” Hoe explains.

It is this understanding of the local market that Spickify will be bringing to Helpling in Singapore. Full-time domestic helpers make up a large industry in Singapore. According to Hoe, however, only one in seven households in Singapore employs a stay-in domestic helper. “The other six households still need to find a way to manage their cleaning,” he says. “Many will do it themselves, but a growing number, especially small households, are looking at hiring a part-time cleaner.”

This is especially true in Singapore where smaller families “are in favour of such option due to lower cost incurred – as compared to hiring a full-time live-in helper – and privacy that smaller family units would want to enjoy,” Hoe adds.

In addition, Hoe feels that the on-demand model will overtake traditional businesses, as witnessed by startups such as GrabTaxi and Uber in the taxi industry. “Ten years ago, no one thought it would be possible to buy shoes online. Today, Helpling seeks to revolutionise the household services industry that is currently still one of the last offline-online industry by bringing about the advantages of digitization to the industry,” he elaborates.