16 startups riding the rise of the solo consumer in India

Photo credit: Pixabay.

Last week my colleague in Bangalore got into a panic. She had to leave her rented apartment by month-end, and the landlord of the new one ditched her at the last moment. He had let it out to somebody else while she was in Singapore attending Tech in Asia’s conference.

I suggested she move into our office until she found an alternative. But she’s a young millennial, proud to be independent. So that was a no go.

We then went to property portal CommonFloor and found a nice place on rent close to where I stay, but the landlord didn’t want single women. That’s quite common in India. We looked up houses on a few more portals but found none that fill the bill.

Next she turned to Roomys, a two-year-old portal that connects you to verified real estate brokers, plumbers, electricians, and internet vendors – four things that a migrant professional in the city just can’t do without. This startup, founded by former business analyst with Mu Sigma and Analytics Quotient – Gunjan Kejriwal, raised a small round of angel funding last year and has been flying under the radar.

Anyway, I’m happy to report that she did fix up a place she loves through Roomys and moved into it on Sunday. All in a day’s work. Tech in Asians are resourceful!

Apart from being impressed by her resourcefulness, it got me thinking about how things have changed for singles in India compared to when I started out as a journo. Some of that change can be seen in startups coming up to serve the growing band of solo consumers in Indian cities. Here are 15 other startups that got my attention in 5 domains:

Accommodation: Nestaway, NoBroker, Grabhouse

Photo credit: Pixabay.

The year-old Nestaway can be used by anyone in the home rental space. But its unique selling point is the furnished apartment suitable for singles. The startup has gained quick traction with this pitch since its launch last year. It’s one of the best-funded in the space with a US$30 million round last month from Tiger Global, IDG Ventures, and Yuri Milner. Flipkart and Ratan Tata are also investors in this startup which featured in Google Launchpad’s first batch this year.

Nestaway isn’t the only one targeting the swathes of migrant professionals in Indian cities. Two-year-old NoBroker was started by IIT engineers fed up with usurious real estate agents. It cut out the middleman, connecting apartment-seekers directly with property owners. This earned the wrath of the middlemen who attacked the NoBroker office last year. The startup survived that and raised US$10 million earlier this year.

Another site cutting out the middlemen in property rentals is Grabhouse. It has even blocked hundreds of thousands of real estate agents signing up to use the site. And it has introduced a concept called “neighborhood specialists” to provide offline support as well. These niche sites and services often prove more useful than the smorgasbord approach of larger portals like Housing and QuikrHomes.

See: Quikr and CommonFloor merge to kill Housing

Furniture: Rentomojo, Furlenco, GoZefo

Food: Freshmenu, Licious, Freshtohome

Home services: Housejoy, UrbanClap, Mr Right

Healthcare: DocsApp, SeeDoc, Practo