As competition intensifies, Taskbob raises $4m series A to scale its home services

Photo credit: Pixabay.

No time to clean the house? Go online and shout for help. The on-demand home services market in India is positively pulsating, with almost a dozen startups in the space now.

Most are marketplaces that put buyers in touch with sellers. They cater to a huge demand in cities for cleaners, drivers, cooks, repairmen, beauticians, laundry services, and more.

But the question is: do they really ease a pain point? Mumbai-based startup Taskbob acknowledges the problem.

“Fulfillment, not discovery, is the real problem in India’s local services space,” says Aseem Khare, co-founder and CEO of Taskbob, which has notched up 100,000 users in Mumbai and gets around 800 to 1,000 bookings a day.

Clearly, the one-year-old startup has hit the nail on the head with a product that resonates with investors. Today, it announced US$4 million in series A funding. The round was led by IvyCap Ventures with participation from existing investors Orios and Mayfield.

Cleaning up the market

Photo credit: Trev Grant.

The home services market in India is estimated to be worth US$7 billion.  UrbanClap and Housejoy are some well known names in the space as they have been expanding fast, getting funding, and making acquisitions.

Like them, Taskbob provides cleaners, handymen services, and drivers. It now also provides maids on demand and at-home salon services under the brand name Myrra.

But it is a highly fragmented market. And services – be it in terms of punctuality, skills, or reliabiliy – are not always up to the mark.

However, Taskbob is hoping to win over customers by focusing on quality. It already claims to have a repeat rate of 70 percent.

“We have been more focused on supply and fulfillment issues rather than plain demand aggregation. Our goal has always been to build a service that provides quality and is absolutely trustworthy,” says Aseem who co-founded it with Abhiroop Medhekar, Ajay Bhatt, and Amit Chahalia – all IIT and IIM alumni.

The startup pre-screens the workers on its portal. Its recruitment process consists of skill testing and psychometric tests. Once hired, they undergo extensive training across vocational skills, customer management, technology, processes, and soft skills.

Scaling up