Urban Company logs strong biz post lockdown, confident of doubling revenue

Home services marketplace Urban Company on Sunday said it has seen strong recovery in business post lockdown and expects its revenue to double in the current fiscal over the previous year.

The company has also been working on increasing its partner strength to meet the growth in demand, Urban Company co-founder Varun Khaitan said.

"During the lockdown, we focused on re-imagining delivering safer and more hygienic services (amid the COVID-19 pandemic) and have made significant investments in technology, PPE (personal protective equipment) and safety training," he told PTI.

Since June, the business has been on a very positive trajectory and customers have trusted Urban Company to enter their homes for both their beauty and home service needs, Khaitan added.

"We are seeing strong growth in business despite the months of lockdown. We have already crossed our pre-COVID peak by more than 30 per cent and are confident of growing 2-folds in FY21 over FY20," he said.

Urban Company, formerly known as Urban Clap, provides access to home services like repairs, servicing of appliances and pest control by trained professionals through its platform.

Its revenue had more than doubled to Rs 216 crore in FY20 over the previous fiscal, while the net booking value of all transactions through the Urban Company platform grew 138 per cent year-on-year to Rs 918 crore in FY20.

While its business had been adversely impacted during the lockdown given the restriction in movement, Urban Company has seen a steady recovery as consumers opted to avail services within the safety of their homes.

Urban Company has registered 30 per cent growth in deliveries since April, and it expects to see these expand by 1.5-2 times as compared to August levels, Khaitan said.

"We are on a steady growth path...Many services within UC portfolio are much ahead of pre-COVID numbers...Our new users are also increasing steeply and we believe this trend will continue with the festive and Diwali season pushing us forward," he said.

He cited the example of the men's grooming category that has already grown four times from pre-COVID levels.

The company has around 27,000 partners on board, a number it expects to grow by 35-40 per cent.