Mr Fix-Its

Picture this. You’re returning late in the night and your car breaks down. There is no help nearby and nowhere that you can crash for the night. Or you want to throw a surprise party but don’t have the time as you have a deadline to meet. Fret not, for help can be summoned through some simple swipes on your smartphone. A slew of online service providers are now addressing these needs and much more. Known as personal assistant or concierge application services, these providers cater to mundane tasks such as plumbing, carpentry, locating tutors or even not-so-ordinary tasks such as planning a wedding, having a cake delivered, having a tow truck sent in the event of a midnight breakdown or arranging a surprise party for a colleague or spouse. One of the first concierge app services in the country, Timesaverz owes its inception to an in-flight chat between co-founders Debadutta Upadhyaya and Lovnish Bhatia. Upadhyaya was struggling to find a quality plumbing service and the two felt that in this age of instant connectivity, an online service to address that need could be a reality. 

Starting from two locations in Mumbai, the start-up now has 50,000 active users in seven cities, 50 employees on its payroll and partnerships with 3,000 service agents. Timesaverz started with household repair and now provides house cleaning, beauty care, laundry, handyman and pest control services. Upadhyaya charges the end consumer a convenience fee, 80% of which is retained by the service agent. Services are priced from #200 to #6,000, and the company handles about 1,000 service requests per day. About 25% of its revenue comes from AMC-based contracts. “We are not looking to expand into new geographies but instead focusing on category expansion by providing more services to consumers,” says Upadhyaya. 

Timesaverz isn’t alone in its quest to create an on-call service economy. UrbanClap, founded by Varun Khaitan, Raghav Chandra and Abhiraj Bhal in December 2014, offers health and wellness, beauty, home repair, wedding and events, academic and personal services. It makes money by charging a 1-25% commission from its service providers. “Our USP is quality-centric service. We are also able to offer 20-40% cheaper services than the open market,” says Bhal. The UrbanClap app has seen a million downloads so far and has 2.1 lakh active users. 

Another such personal assistant app is GoodService, co-founded by Vipul Aggarwal and Ruchir Jain. The start-up is a one-stop shop that handles requests 24x7 and supplies plumbers, electricians, caterers and wedding planners. Its round-the-clock availability differentiates GoodService and its agents are the people you are most likely to chat up in case your car breaks down or you need late-night groceries. With a 40-strong team, its focus has been on building a customer base in Delhi and NCR. “We are growing per transaction numbers instead of relying on burning capital to prop up the business,” says Jain. 

The personal services and odd jobs space is growing in India and the trend looks likely to continue due to lack of time and the need for quick fixes. Most start-ups within this space are going after urban consumers, and hence much of the action and addressable market is in the metros. Though the workers from these apps are priced slightly higher than your friendly neighbourhood handyman, convenience and service quality is the selling proposition here.