Excl: Jabong India head Praveen Sinha backs on-demand home services startup Zimmber

Mumbai-based Rejuvenate Solutions Pvt Ltd, the company behind Zimmber, an on-demand home services platform, has received an undisclosed amount in funding from Praveen Sinha, India head of lifestyle e-tailer Jabong, and an unnamed senior executive of home appliances major Godrej Group, according to a top executive of Zimmber.

While the exact amount raised has not been disclosed, sources revealed that the startup got Rs 50 lakh (about $80,000) from these executives.

Zimmber will use the funds to build the product, said Anubhab Goel, co-founder of Rejuvenate.

The startup was founded early this year by Goel, along with Gaurav Shrivastava and Amit Kumar. Goel is an engineer and earlier co-founded a company called PeopleStrong HR Services. He recently exited the firm. Kumar, an engineer and management graduate, worked in companies including L&T and KBR Inc, prior to setting up Zimmber. Shrivastava, an engineer, previously worked at First Quadrant Solutions.

Zimmber is an online platform for users to book home services such as fixing of a dripping flush tank or electrical glitch, or installation of an air conditioner. Zimmber has identified frequently-occurring problems and listed them on its site, so that one can just select the problem from the drop-down menu. If the problem is unique, then the platform will help the user to define it.

Once booked, the firm will contact the user to confirm his/her availability, before Zimmber sends a service provider to his/her home/office. The firm claims to have partnered with 100 service providers so far.

According to Goel, Zimmber generated Rs 2 lakh revenues in November, and crossed Rs 8 lakh this month.

The company says that most houses spend on average of Rs 20,000 per year on household repairs and this is the segment Zimmber is targeting.

Recently, Rocket Internet-backed German on-demand home services venture, Helpling, had secured $17 million in its Series A round of funding from a group of VC firms, including Mangrove Capital Partners and Phenomen Ventures, and Point Nine Capital, with participation from Lukasz Gadowski, chairman of online food delivery major, Delivery Hero.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)