How the hunt for a wedding photographer created Qyk
In this world of mobile apps, from cash transfers, bill payments to finding doctors, everything is available with a click of a button. One such app is Qyk, a one-stop service marketplace, which claims to make hiring verified and relevant service professionals.
The services range from over 100 categories from photographers, event organisers, interior designers to personal yoga tutors. According to Deepak Singhal, the Co-founder and CEO, all it takes is a few minutes of effort for the customer and he gets connected to the best professionals.
Like most startups, Qyk was started for a personal experience. While planning for his wedding, Deepak was looking for a wedding photographer. However, he found it difficult to find one; he had to reach out to his friends, but was still unsure.
“I tried to find photographers online, but realised there was not enough information for me to make the decision. I ultimately spent around three weeks searching and finally found a good photographer,” says Deepak. And this is what triggered the idea of Qyk, a one-stop shop for all the services that people would need and look for.
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Story of building the team
Deepak and Shobit were working together at Urban Touch. During that time, both were looking for opportunities to start their own venture. Mutual friends of Deepak and Shobit, Sangharsh and Anubhav would get together often. After brain storming and discussions, Qyk was established in 2014.
The workings of Qyk
Once the customer gets on to the portal or app, they post a request of the service they need and their pin code. This request is then processed by answering a few relevant questions. The team in turn gets in touch with the relevant professionals as per the panel and gather the quotations. The customer in turn is provided with three best quotations from which they can choose.
“We have grown from zero to over 100 requests per day in less than three months,” says Deepak. The team aims to reach 5000 requests per day across five cities within the next 12 months. The current revenue model is commission based.
According to Deepak, Qyk’s secret sauce is their technology. He says that they built highly efficient algorithms to match service providers with customers saving everyone’s time and effort. “We see this as a tech-led solution. We have a brilliant team and the right skill sets to make this happen,” adds Deepak.
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Addressable market
Currently, Qyk is focussed on the metro population. The target audience according to Deepak are young busy professionals. “These individuals would like to get their work done within a few taps on their mobiles and that’s what our company promises – saving time and effort. We will also, later, look at Tier 2 cities,” adds Deepak.
Speaking of the challenges, Deepak says that verification of the professionals has been difficult. In-house quality check procedures are followed that help the team confirm the eligibility of the enrolled professionals. After this, to ensure that the customers are provided great services, Qyk also helps train these professionals.
Industry scenario
Services like repair, plumbing, maid services and electronic devices in India are restricted to mom-and-pop agencies. With increasingly busy schedules, making time for everyday house repairs and kinks is becoming increasingly difficult.
In the global scenario, there are several players in the market like Yelp, Find Home Services, Home Improvement & Remodeling and many others. India, too is making way for several such apps and platforms like UrbanClap, Nanojobs, HereNow and Urbanpro.
Services based organisations are quickly working towards sewing up this rather fragmented market space. Many investors have started looking at this huge market that is believed to be approximately USD 100 billion. In April this year, Accel Partners and SAIF Partners invested USD 1.6 million on UrbanClap. Taskjob received a funding close to INR eight crores by Mayfield and Orios Venture partners.