Managing unit economics in laundry is a challenge, says Housejoy's Chatterjee

Amazon-backed Housejoy, run by Sarvaloka Services On Call Pvt Ltd, is one of the many hyperlocal startups that have come up in the country in the last couple of years. Starting with 40-50 jobs per day, the company has scaled up to handle more than 4500 jobs on a daily basis today. The startup provides a broad gamut of home services, ranging from handyman's jobs to home cleaning, car washing, laundry, pest control, beauty treatments, bridal services, fitness services, among others.

"Home service is a pure household need and there is a certain new-age way to solve it. We are bringing in expertise into verticals and are going deeper into services such as beauty and laundry services. With this, we are aiming to offer a higher quality experience to customers," says Saran Chatterjee, in this interview with Techcircle.in.

Talking about its recent acquisition of laundry startup, MyWash Technologies Pvt Ltd, Chatterjee says that managing unit economics in the laundry segment is extremely hard as there is a logistics component attached to it.

"This is the reason we will not see investment in standalone laundry services but in horizontal marketplaces where laundry is part of the portfolio. Only then it is possible to run that category and we are aiming to at least achieve break-even in that segment," he said.

Earlier last month the firm acquired at-home personal fitness tech startup Orobind Fitness Technologies Pvt Ltd for an undisclosed amount in an all-stock deal.

Last year, Housejoy had raised Rs 150 crore ($22.4 million) in a Series B round of funding from a group of investors led by e-commerce giant Amazon.