Help wanted: Can India’s home services playbook work in SEA?

In much of Asia, on-demand apps are a fact of life: Food delivery and ride-hailing have conquered both India and Southeast Asia.

The same can’t be said for home services. While it has grown into a US$60 billion market in India, it is still lagging behind in Southeast Asia.

Indian players such as Snabbit and Urban Company are working to make doing household chores as convenient as ordering groceries.

Snabbit raised US$56 million in April and is betting that consumers will increasingly outsource everyday tasks such as cleaning and laundry to service providers accessible through a mobile app.

Meanwhile, Urban Company has evolved from a beauty services marketplace into a publicly listed firm, making its stock market debut in September 2025 with a valuation of around US$1.7 billion.

Southeast Asia has no equivalent players in the space, and the reasons why point to the differences in how the home services sector grew in the two markets. While Indian players are aggressively scaling within the sector, their Southeast Asian counterparts are taking a more targeted approach.

Why didn’t SEA follow?

Such a difference between India and Southeast Asia is notable when food delivery scaled almost identically in both markets.

India has produced giants like Swiggy and Zomato, while Southeast Asia has grown brands like Grab and Foodpanda.

But the home services sector has followed a different trajectory because it is a fundamentally different category, according to investors and founders.

See also: Duopoly decoded: Zomato vs. Swiggy in 8 charts

When a customer orders biryani through an app, the restaurant creates the meal while the delivery platform transports it. The delivery service can only be held accountable if something goes wrong after the order is handed over. Any issues that happen while the food is being prepared is the restaurant’s responsibility, explains Anant Vidur Puri, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners and one of Urban Company’s earliest investors.

Home services are different: The plumber, massage therapist, or cleaner is the product. Service providers must recruit and train workers, standardize service quality, manage customer complaints, and build user trust, Puri adds.

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