Urban Company launches Disinfection Services for Homes & Commercial Spaces

 

• Urban Company (formerly UrbanClap) launches disinfection service in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune.

• Disinfection Service will use Virex 256 chemical which is proven to kill disease-causing viruses, including coronavirus.

 

Urban Company, India’s largest home services company, today announced the launch of disinfection services for homes and commercial spaces. The newly launched service is aimed at protecting customers, whether families or corporates, from the transmission of viruses (including coronavirus), bacteria and fungi.

The company, currently, is offering disinfection services in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune. It will launch the service in Kolkata, Ahmedabad, and other cities by the end of April. The company added that services will be provided by well-trained and equipped professionals who are permitted by local authorities. The service partners will be wearing a full-body protective suit to ensure the safety of customers as well as their own.

Commenting on the launch, Mr. Abhiraj Bhal, Co-founder, Urban Company, said, “Disinfection services are the need of the hour. We have been getting a lot of requests from our customers and are happy to launch these services in our endeavor to keep them safe. Further, we felt it was necessary to include commercial spaces to provide people with a safe and healthy environment.”

For disinfection service, the company will use Virex 256 chemical which is approved by the Environmental Protection Agency to kill the coronavirus. The service will also ensure sanitisation of high-touch points such as doors, handles, switchboards, and taps. For residential spaces, the service is available at Rs.1700 onwards and its duration may vary from 1 to 2 hours, depending on the size of the house. For commercial spaces, the price depends on the size of the facility. 



About Urban Company:

Founded in Nov 2014, Urban Company (formerly UrbanClap) is India and the UAE’s largest home services company. The company offers services such as beauty and spa at home, cleaning, plumbing, carpentry, appliance repair, painting, etc. through its mobile app and website. It operates in 18 cities in India (including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Surat, Vadodara and Visakhapatnam) and 4 international markets (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sydney and Singapore). It has a partner network of over 30,000 hand-picked service professionals, who are provided financing, training, and product or consumables support. This full-stack approach helps the company live up to its promise of delivering high-quality, delightful services at home.

UrbanClap, CRED and Dunzo among Top 5 Soonicorns Newsmakers of 2019

• UrbanClap was in the limelight for Investment announcements and expansion to international markets.


• CRED has made huge strides towards becoming a household name.


• BharatPe to secure funding from one of the biggest Venture Capitals in today’s world

Wizikey, Asia’s first PR and communication platform has collated interesting trends across industries using its AI and ML-based Technology and created a report on the top newsmakers of 2019 in the Soonicorns world. The report has been created after a thorough study of all the news published in the sector from 1st of January till date.

The number of India’s potential unicorns—a term to describe startups valued at $1 billion—more than tripled from 15 last year to 52 in 2019, becoming the world’s largest pipeline of unicorns in the making, Nasscom said in its report ‘Indian Tech Start-up Ecosystem – Leading Tech in the 20s’.

The top 12 Soonicorns who were shortlisted on the basis of news they made are as follows: UrbanClap, BharatPe, Vedantu, Pharmeasy, Dunzo, Medlife, OkCredit, Chargebee, Sharechat, Dailyhunt, Rupeek and FreshtoHome. 8 Soonicorns moved up the ladder to become Unicorns and many more are expected to do the same in 2019.

“Indian startups have created a lot of benchmarks this year. Two common themes that defined why these companies were at the top of the category in terms of making news was about their Funding Announcement and Strategic Partnerships,” said Anshul Sushil, Founder and CEO of Wizikey.

Here are the top newsmakers in the Soonicorn category for the year 2019:



UrbanClap has had a good year in the limelight. Investment announcements and expansion to international markets were the major highlights for the year. The new range of offerings

from time to time also made sure that they remain in the media limelight. A careful analysis shows that the business was in the news for more than one reason. The most common news buzzwords for UrbanClap were Tiger Global, Flipkart and Home Services.

Since its conception almost a year back, CRED has made huge strides towards becoming a household name and it seems to be succeeding. In just one year CRED has been able to create

huge waves in the investing space. CRED has received substantial media coverage thanks to its sudden rise to fame with majority of it coming from the funding it received and Kunal Shah’s own funding activities. This soonicorn made news on the buzzwords Credit Reward, Credit Card Payments and Tiger Global.

BharatPe has had a stellar year in the spotlight. Having had a quiet couple of months at the very beginning of the year, BharatPe’s visibility started its upward trend after it entered talks with Sequoia to secure funding from one of the biggest Venture Capitals in today’s world. BharatPe has now become a household name and a force to be reckoned with in the digital payments space. The company has since launched various features and offerings to cement its position as a market leader in this space. The most common buzzwords for BharatPe were Digital Payments, QR Payments and Sequoia.

Dunzo had consistent visibility throughout the year. The highlights of the first half of the year came from the launch of Swiggy stores which sited Dunzo as a major competitor. There was also a fair amount of speculation regarding Dunzo’s plan to raise funds. The latter half saw Dunzo getting higher coverage thanks to their partnership with Google and Airtel acquiring Vahan. Dunzo also announced a fresh round of funding during the latter half of the year. The most common buzzwords for this newsmaker were Google Funding, Home Delivery and B2B Logistics Services. 

Vedantu, a relatively new entrant in a booming ed-tech industry has been able to make a name for itself in the news this year. Vedantu has been in the news consistently this year owing to its various funding announcements and feature releases. The biggest announcement the company made by far was about receiving funding from Tiger Global, a leading venture capital firm. One blip on an otherwise positive year for Vedantu was when they received considerable publicity for a hack of their platform.

About Wizikey:

Wizikey is a PR Software-as-a-Service that uses data and AI to simplify PR, making it transparent and measurable for Fortune 500 companies and startups alike. It enables users with features like realtime media intelligence, helps delivering stories to the right journalist while saving spam, hours of scrutiny and giving brands the voice they need.

Wizikey’s co-founders Anshul and Aakriti have spent over a decade in the communications industry, identifying key problems as they served 300+ businesses. These first principles form the foundation of Wizikey - to make the communications industry efficient, transparent and measurable through the power of data and AI tech. With investors like Ajai Chowdhry (Co-founder, HCL), Alok Mittal (Co-founder and CEO, Indifi), Ambarish Raghuvanshi (ex-CFO, Info Edge), Keshav R Murugesh (CEO, WNS), Raman Roy (Chairman, NASSCOM and Chairman, Quattro), Sanjiv Bajaj (CEO, Bajaj Finserv) and the Indian Angel Fund among others, we strive each day to make PR accessible and simple - for everyone.

UrbanClap Raises $75 Mn in Fresh Funding led by Tiger Global

Within a month after receiving investment from ex-Flipkart executive Mekin Maheshwari and Avaana Capital founder Anjali Bansal, Home services company UrbanClap on Friday said it has raised US$75 million in funding, led by Tiger Global.

The round also saw participation from existing investors Steadview Capital and Vy Capital, a statement said.

This transaction was split into two parts -- a primary round which resulted in a share subscription by the above named investors and a secondary share sale by some early institutional investors, it added.

With this, UrbanClap has raised a total of about $185 million in funding.

Founded in 2014, UrbanClap operates in 10 cities in India, including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, and Delhi-NCR, as well as Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

UrbanClap Raises Fresh Funding from Ex-Flipkart Exec and Avaana Capital Founder

Home services marketplace UrbanClap on Friday said former Flipkart executive Mekin Maheshwari and Avaana Capital founder Anjali Bansal have invested in the company.

With this investment, Maheshwari and Bansal join UrbanClap's other angel investors, including Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata and Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy, a statement said.

Maheshwari, who has previously served as Chief People Officer and Chief Technology Officer at Flipkart and currently leading an NGO - Udhyam Learning Foundation, has invested Rs 50 lakh, it added.

Bansal has invested Rs 99 lakh through her personal investment fund SAB Holdings.

"Mekin played a pivotal role in building technology that accelerated e-commerce adoption in India... Anjali's deep experience working with the boards of public and private organizations will help UrbanClap evolve into a long term sustainable organisation," UrbanClap co-founder Raghav Chandra said.

UrbanClap is backed by investors like Steadview Capital, Vy Capital, SAIF Partners, Accel and Bessemer Venture Partners. It currently has more than 20,000 individual service professionals (ISPs) on its platform across categories such as beauty, plumbing, appliance servicing and repair.

Founded in 2014, UrbanClap operates in 10 cities in India (Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Delhi NCR and others) as well as Dubai and Abu Dhabi. PTI SR SR

UrbanClap Raises $25 Mn From Bessemer Venture, Saif & Accel

UrbanClap, a marketplace for home services, has raised $25 million (Rs.165 crore) in a Series B round of funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners with the participation of existing investors including Accel Partners and Saif Partners. Earlier this year, UrbanClap had raised $12 million over two rounds from Saif and Accel Partners.

Founded in 2014, Gurgaon-based UrbanClap has raised a total of about $37 million in three rounds so far.

UrbanClap, a mobile marketplace for services, offers a range of services staff that includes plumbers, beauticians, yoga trainers and even wedding photographers. Under its model until now, UrbanClap charged 10-20% from the customer, but nothing from the service provider; going forward, however, it will reverse this existing model.

The freshly raised funds will be used by the startup to make strategic acquisitions, and to strengthen its leadership position in the space, including an expansion drive in other major cities. By next year, the company plans to have more than 100,000 professionals on the platform - it currently has 20,000 registered service providers - and serve over 100,000 customers daily, up from 5,000 currently.

The startup currently offers services in more than 75 categories across Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai and Pune and the company plans to extend its offering to 25 cities and 100 categories over the next one year.

The startup was founded by Raghav Chandra (ex-Twitter executive), Varun Khaitan (IIT-Kanpur alumnus) and Abhiraj Singh Bhal.

UrbanClap claims that its average ticket size of around Rs.3,000-4,000 and increasing demand will help the company break even by the end of 2016. It has generated $15 million in GMV (gross merchandise value) till date, according to Varun Khaitan, co-founder at UrbanClap.

Urbanclap faces direct competition from similar players in market like Zimmber, Housejoy, Helpi and likes.