UrbanClap to concentrate on home and beauty categories: Report

New Delhi-based home services company UrbanClap has decided to focus on two of its core categories — home and beauty - while shutting down all non-core lines such as wedding services and photography.

The company is looking to adopt a full-stack approach in the two core categories where it intends to closely monitor the quality of supply on the platform, The Economic Times reported, quoting co-founder Abhiraj Bhal. 

“Internet marketplaces will not get built on a light-touch model. There may be a few exceptions but broadly a transaction platform can only survive and thrive if supply side is extremely dependent on the marketplace for livelihood and sees immense value,” Bhal told ET. 

Bhal also emphasised the importance for the marketplace to provide for supplier’s credit, training, insurance and technologies. 

Within its core category—beauty for women, the startup is set to introduce a new service, luxury salon at home, with an average order value of Rs 2,000 to compete with the high end of the market. 

The beauty segment contributes 40% to the company’s revenue presently, the report said. 

Bhal told ET that UrbanClap invests in training within all its categories and aims to run the largest skilling infrastructure in the country by 2025. 

With a partner network of 20,000 professionals, the company is valued at close to $1 billion after it bagged $75 million in a Series E round led by American investment fund Tiger Global Management earlier this year in August.

UrbanClap currently operates in 14 cities - Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Ludhiana, Pune, Kolkata, Vodadra, Visakhapatnam and Lucknow. 

The company was founded in 2014 by Bhal, Varun Khaitan and Raghav Chandra. It competes with home services marketplace Housejoy.

The company started overseas operations recently by providing services in Australia and the UAE.