Mumbai-based home services company Taskbob has raised Rs 28 crore (USD 4.5 million) funding from IvyCap Ventures and existing investors, Orios and Mayfield.
The Series A funding will help Taskbob boost growth and increase dominance in the hyper-local services sector, it said in a statement.
The company has around one lakh users in Mumbai and its platform receives about 800-1,000 bookings a day.
"Fulfillment, not discovery, is the real problem in India's
local services space. With this in mind, we have been more focussed on supply and fulfillment issues rather than plain demand aggregation," Taskbob CEO Aseem Khare said.
He added the funding will help Taskbob in selectively expanding presence in multiple markets, focus on product growth and innovation and evaluate strategic acquisition opportunities.
Over the next 18 months, Taskbob plans to scale to 10,000 orders per day and achieve profitability at a unit level in Mumbai.
It also plans to replicate its "Mumbai model" in the top four-five cities.
Founded by Khare, Abhiroop Medhekar, Ajay Bhatt and Amit Chahalia about a year ago, Taskbob provides pre-screened service experts across home services like cleaning, handymen services and drivers. It provides maids on demand and 'at-home salon services' under the brand name, Myrra.
The company has also expanded through acquisition of Zepper.In, a Bangalore-based company offering home services similar to that of Taskbob.
In April last year, it had raised USD 1.2 million.
There are now a host of startups in the home services space like Housejoy (which is funded by clutch of investors including online marketplace Amazon India), UrbanClap (backed by Bessemer Venture Partners) and Quikr India.
Norbert Fernandes, co-founder and Principal at IvyCap will join the board of Crenovative Ideas, the company that runs Taskbob.
IvyCap Ventures has invested in firms like Reuters Market Light, Aujas Networks, FieldEz Solutions, Vinculum, E-Shakti, Leixir Labs, Purplle.Com, Sokrati, Bluestone and Clovia.
