Home services in India—ranging from dishwashing and laundry to cleaning—have traditionally been provided through informal and offline arrangements. These practices often meant uncertainty and delays for consumers, coupled with inconsistent wages and job insecurity for workers. But recently, Indian startups are identifying this segment as ripe for disruption, bringing much-needed structure, technology, and reliability into the market.
One prominent newcomer shaking up this space is Snabbit, a home services platform founded last year by entrepreneur Ayush Agarwal. Built on a rapid, on-demand model, Snabbit offers consumers services such as cleaning, dishwashing, laundry, and kitchen preparation with an almost unheard-of 10-minute turnaround. The startup recently secured $19 million in a Series B funding round led by venture firm Lightspeed, joined by existing backers Elevation Capital and Nexus Venture Partners, valuing Snabbit at around $80 million.
After struggling firsthand with the frustrations of finding reliable household help—so severe at one point that Agarwal’s own mother had to fly from Kolkata to Mumbai just to assist him in hiring domestic staff—he realized the need for a structured, technology-driven solution. “In today’s world, you can press a button for nearly anything—transport, food, groceries, or even finding a date—but hiring someone dependable for routine domestic help was an incredibly painful experience,” Agarwal explained.
Initially launching operations approximately 15 months ago within a single micro-market in Mumbai, Snabbit spent the first year optimizing its approach before expanding to seven additional Mumbai neighborhoods and branching into Bengaluru. The company differentiates itself by undertaking a comprehensive, “full-stack” method: it directly sources, vets, trains, and manages workers—whom Snabbit refers to as “experts”—and strategically relocates them closer to demand hotspots to fulfill rapid service delivery promises.
Today, Snabbit isn’t alone in seeing the market opportunity. The startup competes with industry incumbents such as the well-known Urban Company, which introduced a similar service called Insta Help but faced public backlash and received rethink its marketing after initially launching as “Insta Maids.” New entrants like Broomies and Pronto have also recently joined the fray, with notable backing—Bain Capital Ventures, for instance, invested in Pronto’s seed round.
As Agarwal concedes, competition is intensifying, but he remains optimistic. “The market is heating up. New players are entering and being funded, which is good news for us, provided we maintain relentless execution,” he said. To maintain its growth trajectory, Snabbit emphasizes delivering consistent customer service through an internally developed technology stack, which includes a comprehensive CRM tool, advanced worker onboarding and tracking, and a robust eKYC verification system.
Snabbit charges customers between ₹169 (around $2) and ₹499 (close to $6) depending on the required service duration, ranging up to 240 minutes. Despite higher costs than rivals—Urban Company’s Insta Help starts services at just ₹49 (about 50 cents)—Agarwal reported healthy growth and customer retention even after the entry of competitive offerings.
Currently, Snabbit employs over 600 workers, who generally cover an average distance of 300 meters between service assignments. For female team members, the company has partnered with mobility startup Yulu to offer specialized training and e-bikes, expanding their average service range to 800 meters. Agarwal intends to further reduce the distances traveled by aligning worker placements even closer to service demand points as operations scale.
With an average ticket size between ₹250-₹270 (around $3), Snabbit workers taking 12-hour shifts can earn upward of ₹40,000 ($470) monthly. Even those working limited four-hour daily shifts earn more than ₹10,000 ($120) per month, considerably higher than the roughly ₹9,000 ($100) typically offered to urban domestic helpers. Additionally, Snabbit provides significant worker benefits, including health, personal accident, and family insurance for long-term employees.
To enhance worker safety—a critical issue given historically high abuse rates and limited legal protections for domestic workers in India—the app includes an “SOS” capability, from which workers can quickly summon assistance. Agarwal explained that Snabbit maintains teams who arrive at emergency locations within a five-to-seven-minute timeframe.
Agarwal reported that Snabbit experienced 5x growth over the past four months, continuing at a weekly expansion rate of around 20 percent. The company will utilize its recently raised capital to expand across more than 200 urban micro-markets in India within the next nine months and grow its nearly 100-member support staff.
However, despite its rapid ascent, Snabbit faces familiar challenges common to the hyperlocal services sector—particularly high customer acquisition costs. The company’s current customer acquisition expense stands around ₹700 ($8), notably higher than its average transaction size. Still, Snabbit has acquired over 25,000 customers, each transacting at least three times per month on average, with Agarwal asserting that its customer retention metrics compare favorably to platforms like Zepto and Swiggy.
Rahul Taneja, partner at Lightspeed, underscored this potential, stating, “Snabbit is transforming India’s home services landscape, bringing speed, predictability, and trust to an industry long hampered by informality. We’re excited to support Snabbit in scaling what was previously considered a luxury into an essential daily service.”
Whether Snabbit’s targeted approach can sustainably overcome the challenges that have previously stifled other hyperlocal ventures remains to be seen, but early results and investor confidence appear promising.
