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Business Standard
41 minutes ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Snabbit raises $19 mn to expand on-demand home services across India
Snabbit, a fast-growing app that provides on-demand home services, has secured $19 million in a Series B funding round led by venture capital firm Lightspeed. Existing investors Elevation Capital and Nexus Venture Partners also participated in the round. With the new funding, Snabbit plans to expand its footprint across major Indian metropolitan areas and enter more than 200 micro-markets over the next nine months. The company is positioning itself to build what it describes as India's first comprehensive operating system for rapid home services—driven by technology, reliability and a network of trained professionals. 'At Snabbit, we're leading the biggest disruption in Indian consumer internet today, fundamentally changing how households access regular services,' said Aayush Agarwal, founder and chief executive officer, Snabbit. 'While ride-hailing transformed mobility and e-commerce reshaped fashion, regular home services remained largely undigitised. With Snabbit, we're solving for trust, quality and speed, all at the tap of a button. The need is universal, the category is massive, and we're just getting started.' The fresh capital comes just four months after Snabbit's Series A raise, signalling strong investor confidence in the startup's rapid growth and its potential to tap into an underpenetrated segment of India's consumer internet market. Founded in 2024 by Aayush Agarwal, Snabbit seeks to bring digital structure to India's largely informal home services sector—long a fragmented and underserved corner of the consumer economy. The startup's hyperlocal model connects users with trained and verified service professionals in real time, aiming to streamline the delivery of high-frequency household services in urban areas. Snabbit's impact goes well beyond convenience for customers. At the heart of the platform are women who were once part of an unstructured, unstable ecosystem. 'What makes this journey truly meaningful is the transformation in their lives,' said Agarwal. 'They now have Aadhaar-linked bank accounts, personal and family insurance, and steady monthly incomes. Once invisible and underpaid, they're now trained, trusted and celebrated professionals. For customers, Snabbit is about quality and speed—for our Experts, it's about dignity, stability and real upward mobility.' Rahul Taneja, partner at Lightspeed, said Snabbit is transforming home services in India by bringing speed, structure and trust to a sector that has largely operated informally until now. 'Aayush and the team are building a platform for urban households; a completely new category that will cater to the needs of millions,' said Taneja. Suvir Sujan, co-founder and managing director, Nexus Venture Partners, said Snabbit continues to execute with clarity and purpose in a space that's long overdue for change. 'They've taken a complex, hyperlocal problem and built a scalable, full-stack solution that delivers value to both consumers and professionals,' said Sujan. Speaking about the investment, Manish Advani, principal, Elevation Capital, said Snabbit's hyperlocal model is cracking the code in one of India's most complex and underserved categories. He said their rapid growth underscores both the scale of unmet demand and their ability to convert a trust-deficit sector into a seamless, on-demand experience. 'We have deep conviction in Aayush and the team as they build the backbone infrastructure that will make quality home services routine, reliable and extremely convenient,' said Advani.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Lightspeed backs Indian home services startup Snabbit as the next big consumer trend
Home services in India — whether it is cleaning, dishwashing, or laundry — have traditionally been offline and informally run. This has often resulted in delays and uncertainties for consumers, as well as inconsistent pay and job insecurity for workers. Recently, however, startups have begun viewing this area as ripe for transformation, leveraging technology to bring predictability, scalability, and structure to the space. Snabbit, founded last year, is one of the early movers in this arena, enabling customers to book high-frequency home services, including cleaning, dishwashing, laundry, and kitchen preparation, through its app, with delivery as fast as 10 minutes. The startup has now raised $19 million in a Series B round led by Lightspeed, with participation from its existing investors Elevation Capital and Nexus Venture Partners, at a post-money valuation of $80 million to expand its presence. The 15-month-old startup launched its quick-service platform in the western Indian city of Mumbai, the country's financial capital, after founder and CEO Aayush Agarwal personally experienced the challenges of finding reliable home services. At one point, Agarwal told TechCrunch, the situation became so difficult that his mother had to fly in from the eastern Indian city of Kolkata to help him find a new domestic worker. "What stayed with me was that in a world of convenience where you can press a button, and you'll get a cab, or you'll get food or groceries, you can even get someone to go out on a date with, but finding someone for a simple service at home was excruciatingly difficult," he said in an interview. The startup ran experiments early last year and remained in one micro market in Mumbai for the first 12 months before expanding to seven markets in the city and one in Bengaluru. Snabbit took a "full-stack approach" to sourcing, screening, training, onboarding, and managing workers, who the startup calls "experts." Once Snabbit signs them, it has the workers move close to the startup's demand centers so they can fulfill the company's promise to provide service in 10 minutes. Snabbit is not alone in this race, as incumbent Urban Company (backed by storied investors, including Accel, Prosus, and Tiger Global) started a similar experience on its app earlier this year. However, the company faced criticism due to the initial message it conveyed and the name Insta Maids, which it later corrected and renamed to Insta Help. This did not help convince many, including gig worker unions, though. Similarly, newer entrants, including Broomees and Pronto, have also joined the arena recently. The latter even recently attracted Bain Capital Ventures for its seed funding. "We know that the market is heating up," he said. "The category is getting exciting, new players are coming in and getting funded. And I think all of it is great for us as long as we keep executing relentlessly." The startup charges customers between ₹169 (about $2) and ₹499 (nearly $6) to avail services of up to 240 minutes. The pricing is higher than that of Urban Company's Insta Help, which starts at ₹49 (50 cents). However, Agarwal said the startup continued to grow and scale even after Urban Company's foray into the market. Agarwal hopes to compete with a consistent customer experience using its in-house tech stack that includes an internal CRM tool, a sourcing and screening pipeline, and an eKYC process to better comply with local regulations. Snabbit currently has over 600 workers on its platform, and each of them covers a median walking distance of 300 meters between two jobs. It has also partnered with the mobility startup Yulu to train and provide e-bikes to its women workers, covering a larger median distance of 800 meters between their jobs. Moreover, Agarwal told TechCrunch that the startup will reduce the median distance for its workers as it scales. The average ticket size on Snabbit's platform is between ₹250 and ₹270 (about $3), while its workers completing a 12-hour shift earn "upward" of ₹40,000 ($470) a month. For completing four hours a day on the platform, the workers get over ₹10,000 ($120) a month, Agarwal said, adding that workers are also eligible for bonuses. Agarwal contends that workers can earn more than the roughly ₹9,000 ($100) that domestic helpers in urban locations are typically paid in the country, per the International Domestic Workers Federation (PDF). Snabbit also provides personal life insurance, health insurance, and accidental insurance to all its workers, as well as family insurance to those who have been with the startup for some time. Workplace abuse has also been quite prevalent for domestic workers in India, as the country predominantly lacks protective laws. For such cases, the startup provides an SOS feature on its app that workers can use to call a field operations team, which reaches the location within "five to seven minutes" to help workers in edge situations, the founder said. Over the last four months, Agarwal stated the startup grew 5x and is currently growing around 20% week-over-week. It plans to expand to over 200 micro markets across metro cities in India within the next nine months by utilizing the fresh capital and hire more employees in its workforce that has nearly 100 people. That said, several hyperlocal consumer apps have been tried and failed repeatedly. For instance, food deliveries imploded globally in 2023 after the pandemic-led lockdowns eased, but they started facing challenges in the last few months. Even in India, instant food delivery models introduced by quick commerce platforms, including Zepto and Zomato, have struggled. The former paused its 10-minute cafe services due to supply constraints, while the latter halted its 15-minute food delivery service just four months after launch, citing "no incrementality in demand." The cost of acquiring customers and providing suppliers in their location is expensive and often hard to pay over time. In Snabbit's case, TechCrunch has learned that the customer acquisition cost is ₹700 ($8), while its average ticket size is about $3. The startup has onboarded over 25,000 customers so far, and an average customer transacts on the platform at least three times a month, per Agarwal. "Our retention rates are as good as any consumer internet company, say, a Zepto or Swiggy, would be having," the executive said. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how the startup can retain its customers over time and beat the competition while continuing to scale and expand its market in India. "Snabbit is transforming home services in India by bringing speed, structure, and trust to a sector that has largely operated informally until now," said Rahul Taneja, a partner at Lightspeed, in a prepared statement. "We are excited to join them on this journey and support their mission to transform and scale what was once considered a luxury into a day-to-day necessity." Sign in to access your portfolio
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Quick service app Snabbit raises $19 million in round led by Lightspeed
Quick service app Snabbit, which offers hyperlocal, on-demand home services , has raised $19 million in a funding round led by Lightspeed. Existing investors Elevation Capital and Nexus Venture Partners also participated in the round. The Mumbai-based startup plans to use the fresh capital to expand into new micro-markets and strengthen its team amid rising demand for rapid, on-demand home services in India. Founded in 2024 by Aayush Agarwal , a former chief of staff at quick commerce platform Zepto, Snabbit connects households with trained professionals for tasks such as general cleaning, dishwashing, and laundry. These professionals are available on demand and typically arrive within 15 minutes, with services billed by the hour. 'The plan is to scale Snabbit to more than 200 micro-markets in the next nine to 12 months. We're now in around 10 micro-markets, so that's like a 20X multiple from here. We're also building out the team,' Agarwal told ET. Live Events Snabbit operates a full-stack model, managing the sourcing, training, and deployment of its workforce. Its time-based pricing structure is designed to ensure consistent service quality across households and tasks. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories Some of the areas where the startup currently operates include Mumbai's Powai, Thane, Marol, and Ghatkopar, as well as Bengaluru's Bellandur and Sarjapura. According to Agarwal, Snabbit has over 600 professionals on its platform, and this number is doubling every month. He added that the income potential for professionals on the platform is significantly higher than traditional offline channels, with someone working a 12-hour shift able to earn up to Rs 40,000 a month—about twice as much as they might make offline. 'Snabbit is not a category-based service as much as it is about getting someone skilled and trained to help you out. That help could be with cleaning the home, it could be with just an ad hoc task, or it could be, like, you have guests over and you need an extra hand. So, it's almost becoming that support system for a lot of customers who, at times, urgently need someone to help them out,' said Agarwal. The company also leverages advanced technologies for sourcing, training, onboarding, and managing its workforce. It has partnered with digital identity verification provider Idfy to streamline onboarding. Earlier this year, Snabbit raised $5.5 million in a round led by Elevation Capital, with participation from Nexus Venture Partners and other angel investors. Prior to that, in 2024, Nexus had also led a $1 million round in the startup. 'Snabbit is transforming home services in India by bringing speed, structure, and trust to a sector that has largely operated informally until now. Aayush and the team are building a platform for urban households, a completely new category that will cater to the needs of millions,' said Rahul Taneja, partner at Lightspeed. The rise of players like Snabbit comes as urban consumers increasingly expect convenience and speed in everyday services. Last month, Urban Company, a major player in the at-home services space, filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) for a Rs 1,900 crore initial public offering (IPO). As part of the offer for sale (OFS), investors such as Accel, Elevation Capital, Tiger Global, and Vy Capital are looking to partially exit their stakes.
TechCrunch
2 hours ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
Lightspeed backs Indian home services startup Snabbit as the next big consumer trend
Home services in India — whether it is cleaning, dishwashing, or laundry — have traditionally been offline and informally run. This has often resulted in delays and uncertainties for consumers, as well as inconsistent pay and job insecurity for workers. Recently, however, startups have begun viewing this area as ripe for transformation, leveraging technology to bring predictability, scalability, and structure to the space. Snabbit, founded last year, is one of the early movers in this arena, enabling customers to book high-frequency home services, including cleaning, dishwashing, laundry, and kitchen preparation, through its app, with delivery as early as 10 minutes. The startup has now raised $19 million in a Series B round led by Lightspeed, with participation from its existing investors Elevation Capital and Nexus Venture Partners, at a post-money valuation of $80 million to expand its presence. The 15-month-old startup launched its quick-service platform in the western Indian city of Mumbai, the country's financial capital, after founder and CEO Ayush Agarwal personally experienced the challenges of finding reliable home services. At one point, Agarwal told TechCrunch the situation became so difficult that his mother had to fly in from the eastern Indian city of Kolkata to help him find a new domestic worker. 'What stayed with me was that in a world of convenience where you can press a button, and you'll get a cab, or you'll get food or groceries, you can even get someone to go out on a date with, but finding someone for a simple service at home was excruciatingly difficult,' he said in an interview. The startup ran experiments in early last year and remained in one micro market in Mumbai for the first 12 months before expanding to seven markets in the city and one in Bengaluru. Snabbit took a 'full-stack approach' to sourcing, screening, training, onboarding, and managing workers, who the startup calls 'experts.' Once Snabbit signs them, it has the workers move close to the startup's demand centers so they can fulfill the company's promise to provide service in 10 minutes. Snabbit is not alone in this race, as incumbent Urban Company (backed by storied investors including Accel, Prosus, and Tiger Global) started a similar experience on its app earlier this year. However, the company faced criticism due to the initial message it conveyed and the name Insta Maids, which it later corrected and renamed to Insta Help. This did not help convince many, including gig worker unions, though. Techcrunch event Save now through June 4 for TechCrunch Sessions: AI Save $300 on your ticket to TC Sessions: AI—and get 50% off a second. Hear from leaders at OpenAI, Anthropic, Khosla Ventures, and more during a full day of expert insights, hands-on workshops, and high-impact networking. These low-rate deals disappear when the doors open on June 5. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | REGISTER NOW Similarly, newer entrants including Broomies and Pronto have also joined the arena recently. The latter even recently attracted Bain Capital Ventures for its seed funding. 'We know that the market is heating up,' he said. 'The category is getting exciting, new players are coming in and getting funded. And I think all of it is great for us as long as we keep executing relentlessly.' The startup charges customers between ₹169 (about $2) and ₹499 (nearly $6) to avail services of up to 240 minutes. The pricing is higher than that of Urban Company's Insta Help, which starts at ₹49 (50 cents). However, Agarwal said the startup continued to grow and scale even after Urban Company's foray into the market. Agarwal hopes to compete with a consistent customer experience using its in-house tech stack that includes an internal CRM tool, a sourcing and screening pipeline, and an eKYC process to better comply with local regulations. Snabbit currently has over 600 workers on its platform, and each of them covers a median walking distance of 300 meters between two jobs. It has also partnered with the mobility startup Yulu to train and provide ebikes to its women workers, covering a larger median distance of 800 meters between their jobs. Moreover, Agarwal told TechCrunch that the startup will reduce the median distance for its workers as it scales. The average ticket size on Snabbit's platform is between ₹250-₹270 (about $3), while its workers completing a 12-hour shift earn 'upward' of ₹40,000 ($470) a month. For completing 4 hours a day on the platform, the workers get over ₹10,000 ($120) a month, Agarwal said, adding that workers are also eligible for bonuses. Agarwal contends that workers can earn more than the roughly ₹9,000 ($100) that domestic helpers in urban locations are typically paid in the country, per the International Domestic Workers Federation (PDF). Better treatment for domestic workers Snabbit also provides personal life insurance, health insurance, and accidental insurance to all its workers, as well as family insurance to those who have been with the startup for some time. Workplace abuse has also been quite prevalent for domestic workers in India, as the country predominantly lacks protective laws. For such cases, the startup provides an SOS feature on its app that workers can use to call a field operations team, which reaches the location within 'five to seven minutes' to help workers in edge situations, the founder said. Over the last four months, Agarwal stated the startup grew 5x and is currently growing around 20% week-over-week. It plans to expand to over 200 micro markets across metro cities in India within the next nine months by utilizing the fresh capital and hire more employees in its workforce that has nearly 100 people. That said, several hyperlocal consumer apps have been tried and failed repeatedly. For instance, food deliveries imploded globally in 2023 after the pandemic-led lockdowns eased, but they started facing challenges in the last few months. Even in India, instant food delivery models introduced by quick commerce platforms including Zepto and Zomato have struggled. The former paused its 10-minute cafe services due to supply constraints, while the latter halted its 15-minute food delivery service just four months after launch, citing 'no incrementality in demand.' The cost of acquiring customers and providing suppliers in their location is expensive and often hard to pay over time. In Snabbit's case, TechCrunch has learned that the customer acquisition cost is ₹700 ($8), while its average ticket size is about $3. The startup has onboarded over 25,000 customers so far, and an average customer transacts on the platform at least three times a month, per Agarwal. 'Our retention rates are as good as any consumer internet company, say, a Zepto or Swiggy, would be having,' the executive said. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how the startup can retain its customers over time and beat the competition while continuing to scale and expand its market in India. 'Snabbit is transforming home services in India by bringing speed, structure, and trust to a sector that has largely operated informally until now,' said Rahul Taneja, a partner at Lightspeed, in a prepared statement. 'We are excited to join them on this journey and support their mission to transform and scale what was once considered a luxury into a day-to-day necessity.'
Fashion United
2 days ago
- Business
- Fashion United
Slikk secures 10 million dollars to expand fast fashion delivery and Try & Buy model
Slikk, an online platform that delivers clothing and accessories within 60 minutes in Bengaluru (southern India), secured 10 million dollars in a series A round. Nexus Venture Partners led this round, with participation from Lightspeed. The founders announced this via the career platform LinkedIn. Slikk is using the investment to expand its range to new categories such as beauty and shoes, introduce direct returns and expand the service in more urban areas. Lightspeed is doubling its investment and re-entering shortly after the seed round of 3.2 million dollars in March. Apparel Resources reports that Multiply Ventures and other investors are also participating. The founders Akshay Gulati, Om Prakash Swami and Bipin Singh started Slikk in Bengaluru in March 2024. The city is known as the centre of India's tech industry. Slikk combines fast delivery with a Try & Buy model, where customers can try on clothes before deciding to buy them. The platform anticipates the trend-sensitive and fast purchasing cycles of young consumers. It offers over 80 brands, including Snitch, The Souled Store, Freakins, Uptownie and Bewakoof. This article was translated to English using an AI tool. FashionUnited uses AI language tools to speed up translating (news) articles and proofread the translations to improve the end result. This saves our human journalists time they can spend doing research and writing original articles. Articles translated with the help of AI are checked and edited by a human desk editor prior to going online. If you have questions or comments about this process email us at info@
