One business idea in college and a long lasting obsession with a specific problem statement gave rise to one of the fastest growing home services platforms in India — 'Pronto'. Founded by the 23-year old Anjali Sardana, Pronto is an instant home services startup that is essentially trying to do for domestic help what quick-commerce companies did for groceries — house help in 10 minutes.
This is especially a game-changer for hundreds and thousands of professionals that live far from home. The response as a result has been fascinating. Pronto has become a $100 million company within just a year of launching.
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Speaking to NDTV Profit, Sardana said "while the home services market is broken for customers, it is even more broken on the supply side." Meaning, this raised the opportunity of filling a gap that not just offers copious demand but also fixes a problem no one notices at first glance — the unemployment, lack of dignity, respect, safety and stable income for workers in this segment.
The company offers on-demand household workers for a huge variety of tasks like general cleaning, washing utensils, laundry, kitchen cleaning, bathroom cleaning etc.
But the home services ecosystem for a long time has been so informal, that organising it now itself appears to be a chaotic task. Echoing this thought, Sardana told NDTV Profit that "quality, safety and reliability" are their key focus areas. She in fact emphasised on quality as the most primal driver of customer frequency, calling it a tool "to win in this market."
To put it clearly, Pronto tried to formalise this highly unorganised sector by onboarding workers directly, training them, conducting thorough background verification, practicing standardised pricing and enabling app-based booking. This process, as she said, "ensures trust" which is of utmost importance to the company.
Something that really stands out is also Pronto's operational model that revolves around hyperlocal clusters ("micromarkets") and rapid dispatch system. Over 10,000 professionals are currently associated with Pronto, spanning 15 cities across India.
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When asked about expansion, she said they are currently building the infrastructure to penetrate further into Tier 2 and 3 cities by leveraging technology. She, in fact, underscored "technology" as the foundation for capacity management and improving services.
In a country with an entrenched culture of outsourcing household work, startups like Pronto are not just organising the domestic labour market but increasing women workforce participation and urban convenience. While the growth may be unusually fast in such a short time, the demand is more than one can imagine.
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