Why home services startup Housejoy plans to diversify its product range and expand into new areas
In a conversation with YourStory’s Daily Dispatch, Sanchit Gaurav, Founder and CEO, Housejoy, shares valuable insights into home services startup’s journey amid the pandemic, the growth of the IRC vertical and B2C space, and plans for the future.
Founded in 2015, is a Bengaluru-based tech-driven construction, renovation, interior, and home maintenance company. The company has raised about $30.2 million from Amazon, GrowthStory, Matrix Partners, and other investors so far.
Sanchit Gaurav, Founder and CEO, Housejoy, says the company aims to use the funds for expansion, growth, and brand awareness.
He says it has been a great journey for the company from the beginning, but 2019 was a good year in terms of growth – the Interiors, Renovation, and Construction (IRC) vertical grew 3x-4x. Similar growth was expected in 2020, but the pandemic slowed things down.
The company is expecting at least 4x growth in FY21 in terms of the number of orders and revenue. The IRC vertical started in 2019, with Housejoy building homes for individuals, not developers or builders. “It is obviously a very emotional business,” Sanchit says.
He adds that the company’s labour sector was heavily impacted due to the pandemic as many workers returned to their hometowns. There was support from the customers, and the company “also supported them”.
Sanchit Gaurav, Co-founder, Housejoy
On the B2C side, service providers such as plumbers and carpenters were affected. This led Housejoy to venture into sanitising government buildings and grocery delivery so service providers could earn a living.
Housejoy was doing 35-40 projects month-on-month in 2019, which went down to 10-15 projects after the pandemic hit. By the end of 2020, the company started seeing growth – and the projects went up to 20-25 month-on-month.
Sanchit says the home construction and maintenance startup saw a good number of projects in June 2021, especially the last week when the team worked on 20+ projects. In addition to that, the B2C side started showing a healthy number of bookings.
“Customers were more worried about health in April/May, but by June realised that this was a part of their lives and they had to move on,” Sanchit says.
Focusing on construction
The founder says Housejoy plans to currently focus on construction. “There will be competition on the B2C side but on the IRC vertical side, we are the only tech-enabled company.”
The startup has already started working on the diversification aspect. Recently, it tied up as a solution partner with Nest-In by Tata Steel, which offers prefabricated solutions for housing, sanitation, safe drinking water, portable cabins, and premium living.
In addition to that, Housejoy is also working on diversifying the technology side to provide customers with a hassle-free journey.
It operates in six cities on their B2C side and three cities on their IRC vertical side. Within the next three months, another six cities will be added to the IRC vertical side. “We aim to be in 15 cities across the country and within a year,” Sanchit says.
“We call ourselves a one-stop solution for home services. We design, build, and maintain.”
Edited by Teja Lele