Taskbob, a Mumbai-based Home Services Startup, has tapped the developing market. It provides pre-screened servicemen across a range of home services like cleaning, handymen services and drivers, has recently added two more services-maids on demand and ‘at-home salon services’ under the brand-name Myrra. Earlier they did some flash-mob campaigns as well, as part of social engagement with Mumbai Police.

Taskbob raises USD 4.5Mn (INR 28 crores) in Series A round of funding, led by IvyCap Ventures along with existing investors, Orios and Mayfield. This is first investment of IvyCap in the home services space. “We see them (Taskbob) as becoming number one in this market. This is a business where you enter houses of customers, if you mess it up, you do not get a second chance. It requires a lot of preparation, training and right people. They have done their backend properly, in terms of technology, customer acquisition and analytics,” said Vikram Gupta, founder and Managing Partner of IvyCap Ventures.

Aseem Khare, CEO of Taskbob shared, “The funding will be used to boost growth and expand to other cities. What we have done in Mumbai is understanding the back end and creating a playbook. The idea is to replicate the playbook across top four to five cities in one and half years and reach to 10,000 orders per day. In Mumbai, we want to be profitable at the unit level in the next one and a half years.”

Khare added, “Beauty services, which we added recently, is doing really well. We have 40 percent repeat customers,” said Khare. Khare added that Taskbob does 800-1000 overall orders per day in Mumbai.

UrbanClap and Housejoy, the big players in the sector have raised funds of Rs. 170 crores and Rs.150 crores respectively, in their series B rounds. Housejoy also acquired on-demand laundry startup MyWash and at-home personal fitness startup Orobind earlier this month. Whereas Taskbob is planning to enter Bengaluru in another month and a half and had acquired Zepper Services Pvt Ltd last year in a ‘merger of assets’ deal so as expand into the city. The startup had raised $1.2 million (Rs. 7.5 crores) in seed funding from Orios Venture Partners and Mayfield Fund in April 2015.

Rehan Yar Khan, founder of Orios, the first VC firm to back the company said, “Building loyal customer base rather than discounting will be the focus going forward. In a market where funding will be tight going, startups delivering quality service and not just volumes will matter which will be Taskbob’s differentiator.” It is said that Norbert Fernandes, co-founder and principal at IvyCap, will shortly be joining the board of Crenovative Ideas Pvt. Ltd. ( the company behind Taskbob) on behalf of IvyCap Ventures.

Though the segment has been existing for quite a long time but couldn’t prove it’s presence much. A new player has entered the market let’s see what difference does this new approach make.

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