Hyperlocal home services startup Zimmber raises Rs 2.5 crore

To close $2-million pre-Series-A round in two weeks

Zimmber, a Mumbai-based on-demand, hyperlocal home services startup, has raised $400,000 (around Rs 2.5 crore) in a bridge round from Bengaluru-based InMobi’s co-founders Naveen Tiwari, MohitSaxena and Amit Gupta, along with chief product officer Piyush Shah, and others.

“We propose to deploy the funds to build technology and marketing activities, besides ramping up our headcount from the present 70,” Anubhab Goel, co-founder and chief executive officer of Zimmber, told Business Standard.

Prior to this round, Praveen Sinha, co-founder and managing director of Jabong, and Satyam Bansal, director (mobile app distribution and strategic alliances) at Flipkart, had invested an undisclosed amount in Zimmber.

“India is primarily a service economy and when it comes to day to day home services, we all tend to suffer. Zimmber is solving a real-life problem we all face each day. We believe in the model and team and would continue to back Zimmber in our own ways. This is a huge market opportunity and Zimmber is well poised to solve the problem,” InMobi chief executive Naveen Tiwari, said in a release on Monday.

Founded in October 2014, Zimmber currently has operations in Mumbai, Pune and Gurgaon, offering nine services including home painting, AC and electrical, sofa and carpet cleaning, plumbing, carpentry and mason. At present, Zimmber is receiving 100 orders per day from the three cities.

Goel said Zimmber had already signed a term sheet to raise $2-million (approximately Rs 13 crore) in a Pre-Series-A round of funding, which should be closed in two weeks from now.

“The proceeds from the proposed fundraising will be utilised to add new services like laundry, driver-on-demand and pest control, besides entering new cities like Thane, New Delhi and Noida in the coming few months,” Goel said.

Zimmber has also “acqui-hired” Henal, chief executive officer of laundry services player Dhulai.