A Project 

 
ON
URBAN COMPANY

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for 

 the award of degree of Bachelor of Business 
 Administration 2020 – 2023  
 
 
Submitted by                                                                                   Guided by 
MOHAK ARORA DR. BORTO BHARDWAJ
ERP: 0201BBA090
 
 
 

 
 
Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University) 
Institute of Management & Research, New Delhi 
Re-Accredited with Grade “A+” by NAAC 
A- 4, Paschim Vihar, New - Delhi, Ph: 011 - 25286442 Fax 011 - 25286442 
Chapter 1
Introduction to the start-up, Objectives and Mission & Vision

Introduction
Home services start up UrbanClap, which has now expanded to Australia,
Singapore and the UAE, today announced that it has renamed itself as Urban
Company. The new umbrella brand captures the company’s ambition to be a
horizontal gig marketplace with a global footprint across categories like beauty &
wellness and home repairs & maintenance.
Urban Company co-founder Abhiraj Bhal said it is important to have a brand
which is globally acceptable. "From the neighbourhoods of Darling Harbour in
Sydney to the condominiums of Gurgaon, Urban Company is a simple name with
universal appeal. What remains unchanged is our commitment to offer reliable
and affordable services at home," Bhal said in a statement. This is enabled by
working closely with our service partners, helping them with up-skilling, financing,
insurance, product procurement etc., transforming them into micro-service
entrepreneurs, he said.
The startup offers services related to salon, makeup, spa massages, grooming,
repairs, cleaning, painting, pest control, etc. It also offers fitness and yoga services
at home.
For the financial year ended 31 March 2019, the company's gross revenue more
than doubled to ₹116 crore, from ₹46 crore in the previous year, even as its
operating loss rose 26% to ₹72 crore, compared to a year ago, Mint had reported
earlier.
Objectives
Urban Company, which was launched in Delhi in November 2014 with a handful
of service professionals as UrbanClap, now claims to be India's and the UAE’s
largest home services company. During the last five years, it has expanded to
three countries -- Australia, Singapore and the UAE -- from India. With a fleet of
more than 25,000 trained professionals across the four countries, it has served
over 5 million households so far.

Urban Company aims to train a million professionals from tier 2 and 3 cities
over the next five years to meet the increasing demand for skilled
professionals,

Mission vision
Mission is to empower millions of service professionals by delivering services
at-home in a way that has never been experienced before.

The business model of Urban company

works in two-ways.
1. Fixed Charged Services

For plumbing, electrical work for home maintenance, the organization accepts
the money from the app and then charges its dues to the hired assistance.

They cut a different fee off the collected funds.

2. Services Without Any Fixed Charges

The company is paying lead generation and funding listing to the experts.
The customers are not charged right away. They know the operation. The
specialist shall pay a fee for approving the order. If the expert is able to
persuade the customer to purchase the service, then monetizing is a success.

Five options are given to the user from which to choose the most comfortable
choice. If the service provider’s profile is not shown, he earns payable credit. If
the algorithm is successful, then less work must be performed by the user.

Chapter 2
PROBLEMS AND NEED FOR THE START UP

The Need of the company

The platform helps customers book professional home services such as beauty
services and massage therapy for both women and men, cleaning, painting,
plumbing, carpentry, appliance repair, and many more.
The main motive of the company is to empower millions of professional’s world-
wide deliver services at home like never experienced before. This innovative idea
was brought up by three young brains, Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Raghav Chandra, and
Varun Khaitan.
The Challenges & Perks Of The Company
1) Business Model & Unit Economics
For a lot, this might seem like the no. 1 thing needed to be figured out before
starting a business. However, a lot of start-ups, especially in the tech realm fall
short here. Monetization strategies and business models depend so much
more on hypothesis around certain assumptions on product and consumer
behaviour. These need to be proven first. The challenge faced here is a certain
sense of urgency to scale up by start-ups, almost feeling that more users and
more dollars in the bank solve the rest. But in fact, what is important is to
prove that basic unit economics – cost of acquisition, the cost of operations,
revenue from transactions – all need to add up to the positive.
2) Hiring & Team building
This is something which Urban Company have been really careful of, and are
really proud of. All start-ups require great teams to be perfectly aligned to the
goals and execute flawlessly. In a frothy market, where you have new money, a
lot is being done to hire exceptional talent. So much so that the value-
proposition of the company is less important and the perks are more
important.
3) Product Market Fit
While the start-up environment is on the positive side, the big bets that are
laid in the market still need to prove their mettle. This will certainly cause the
cycle of correction. That should not dishearten anyone. It’s all the more
important for us as start-ups to be careful with what we are spending. It’s easy
to get blinded by fast customer growth, but if you haven’t solved for unit
economics, if you haven’t plugged the leaky bucket for user retention and
repeat, then there is no point spending on a scale. A lot of start-ups are still
figuring out the best product that fits the demand and gets the revenue

equation working.

CHAPTER 3
Innovations brought in by the company related
to existing businesses
Urban Company, previously called UrbanClap, is among the leading start-ups in
India that have witnessed a steep rise in their customer base.

The company has made it easy to avail services such as massage and salon
without going outside and it is the largest online services provider which has a
very simple background.

The platform helps customers book professional home services such as beauty
services and massage therapy for both women and men, cleaning, painting,
plumbing, carpentry, appliance repair, and many more. 

It was launched in November 2014. The main motive of the company is to

empower millions of professional’s world-wide deliver services at home like
never experienced before. This innovative idea was brought up by three young
brains, Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Raghav Chandra, and Varun Khaitan. This was their
second attempt at starting a business.
Since its launch, the company has evolved immensely, and currently, it offers
services under two verticals – Beauty & Wellness, and Home Repairs &
Maintenance. Service professionals are closed to 40,000, out of which 35000
are from India on its platform.

Related venture capitalists and angel investors

The trio of Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Raghav Chandra, and Varun Khaitan put up this
wonderful idea.
 
Cinema box was an on-demand movie streaming platform that gave
entertainment for long-distance buses was the first venture of Abhiraj and
Varun. Raghav Chandra was trying to start something on his own, auto ride-
sharing app called Buggy.

The three eventually came together in their new mission and founded “Urban
Company”.
 
At Urban Company, Abhiraj Bhal is mainly responsible for handling marketing
and business development. Raghav Chandra is responsible for technology and
product development and Varun Khaitan takes care of the operations and
partner success.

Till date, the company is funded by 12 investors with Vy Capital, Tiger Global
Management being the most recent names on the list.
 
It has raised a total of $190.9M in funding over 10 rounds and on 25 Aug 2020,
its latest funding was raised from a secondary market round.
 
They have acquired three organizations and their most recent acquisition was
Glamazon on Mar 4, 2020. 
Gurugram-based hyperlocal service provider Urban Company is the latest
startup to join the unicorn club, as the company is said to be valued at $2 Bn in
its latest $188 Mn Series F funding round. The latest investment was led by
Prosus.
According to the ministry of corporate affairs filings, Urban Company has
allotted 2,613 equity shares and 50,490 Series F preference shares at an issue
price of INR 265,553.1 per share to raise INR 1,410.2 Cr ($188 Mn).
Prosus led the round with $61.93 Mn (INR 464.53 Cr), while DF International
and Wellington Management together infused close to $70 Mn (INR 522). DF
International made an investment of $36.86 Mn (INR 275 Cr) and Wellington
Management made an investment of $33.2 Mn (INR 248 Cr). The development
was first reported by Entrackr, which estimates that the company is valued at
$2 Bn (INR 14,615 Cr).

While it has not confirmed the $1 Bn+ valuation after the Series F, Urban
Company had raised its Series E in 2019 at a valuation of $933 Mn. Urban
Company had raised $75 Mn in Series E funding round led by Tiger Global with
participation from existing investor’s Steady view Capital and Vy Capital in
2019. The company has raised over $370 Mn to date.

Chapter 4
Market Analysis, Marketing & Pricing Strategy, Location Facilities
Urban Company Marketing Strategy Analysis
During the research, the student found that Urban Clap has a great social
media presence and is present on all 4 major digital platforms, i.e., Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. The current generations, Millennials and
after, are big consumers of social media. These platforms are a great way to
connect to your audience, to engage them and to be the brand they
remember.

Urban Clap Marketing Campaign

A great way to connect with potential customers on the internet is through
paid advertisements. Social Media platforms know various details about all of
us and a marketer can choose to market to a specific audience they wish to
cater to.

Video Advertisement On Platforms Like YouTube

UrbanClap has been posting very touching and interesting videos to catch the
audience’s interest in soothing their lifestyle through UrbanClap. Thus, this is
another way how they are able to increase their customer base manifolds
using YouTube advertisements.

Pricing strategy
1) Fixed Charged Services

For plumbing, electrician work or home cleaning the company accepts the
money from the app and then pays the hired help their dues.
2) Services without Fixed Charges

The organization charges the experts for lead generation and sponsored listing.

The users do not pay immediately. They get to know the service. The
professional pays a fee to accept the request. If the expert can convince the
user to buy the service, then monetizing is successful

Location facilities
Facility location determination is a business-critical strategic decision. There
are several factors, which determine the location of facility among them
competition, cost and corresponding associated effects. Facility location is a
scientific process utilizing various techniques.

UrbanClap does not need to focus on geographical areas for business because
it’s an online service platform.
UrbanClap, become India’s largest online services platform. The company
began with a vision of going beyond being a mere search and discovery
platform by building a business model that encompasses on-boarding service
providers, training them, managing quality control while at the same time
giving users the assurance of standardized services and prices on a platform
where they could make payments and write reviews. The UrbanClap founders
started aggregating service providers on the one hand and building an online
platform on the other, enabling customers to request services online through
their website or mobile application.

Chapter 5
IP applications and its benefits to the company

What Is IP?
Intellectual property refers to any new idea or invention created by an
individual or a business. It is essentially an invention that has both commercial
and moral value. Such inventions that are new, innovative and life-changing
can be protected by the individual who came up with the concept or product
under intellectual property rights and laws that govern the country. Under
Intellectual Property Rights (IPRS), the inventor can get copyrights, patents,
design and, trademarks and trade secret protection to shield an
invention/creation from being duplicated or copied by another individual or
business.
IPR benefits

There are five major advantages of intellectual property rights.

They are as under:
 IPRs can help turn your ideas into money-makers
Every little or big idea you have, can prove invaluable if it is executed
correctly. This simply means that your intellectual property can help you
convert your ideas into products and services which are commercially
successful. You can use your intellectual property to create a business on
your own, pitch it to investors and start a business or even get it
licensed, enabling you to sell it to various businesses in exchange for a
steady stream of income. An IPR can be converted into an asset and can
help turn your idea into a huge money-maker.

 IPRs can enhance your business’ market value

One of the greatest advantages of protecting intellectual property is that
it can generate income for your business in many ways. You could
license your IP and lend it to various businesses in exchange for a fixed
income or reasonable royalties. You could also reap benefits from selling
your IP products and services for a fixed amount. Selling your IP can raise
your profits and even improve your market share. Also, in case you sell
your company or enter an acquisition or merger with another, registered
and protected intellectual property assets can significantly enhance your
business’ value.

 IPRs can help you stand out from the competition

Customers are always looking for something new and exciting. Every
company aspires to be the first one to offer a breakthrough product to
customers. If you wish to create a certain image for your business then
IPs are absolutely essential. Remember, customers associate a certain
value with their favourite brands. This is where factors like goodwill,
trademarks, designs and logos come into the picture. Customers
recognize brands from these factors and IPRs helps businesses
differentiate their products and services within a market, while
promoting them to its target customers.
  IPRs can be accessed to raise finances
Another benefit of intellectual property ownership is that you can easily
monetize your IP assets when you need to raise funds. You could choose
to sell the IP, license it, or even use it as collateral while taking on a debt.
Also, the government of India has created several laws that allow IP
owners to use their IPs to their advantage while applying for any
government or public funding including loans, subsidies and grants.

 IPRs can enhance opportunities related to exports in business

IPRs give you the freedom to tread into the export business as well.
There is no law that states that IPs need to be protected and can be used
to benefit one within specific borders. With the help of IPRs you can use
your designs and brands to market your products and services in foreign
lands as well, thus improving your export prospects. You can seek
franchising agreements with foreign companies and even export
patented products.

THANK YOU.

Submitted by Guided by
MOHAK ARORA (0201BBA090) DR. BORTO BHARDWAJ

Bharati Vidyapeeth
(Deemed to be University)
Institute of Management &
Research, New Delhi
Re-Accredited with Grade “A” by NAAC
Recipient of B-school leadership award from Star News
A-4, Paschim Vihar, New-Delhi,