Adding to the ever-growing list of home services startup getting early-stage capital is Gapoon. The Bengaluru-based startup, which offers home maintenance services in both on-demand and subscription model, has secured close to $180K from a group of investors, including entrepreneur and investor, Mr. Chandrashekar Tallapragada.
Gapoon was founded in 2015 by Apoorva Mishra, Ankita Asai, Ankit Bindal and Nikhil Gupta, with the aim of providing a one-click, one-stop solution for all home maintenance requirements. The company received its first found of angel funding in July 2015.
Gapoon intends to use the new funds to consolidate their presence in Bengaluru, particularly in its subscription-based model.
Apoorva Mishra, Founder & CEO at Gapoon says,
This funding round gives us further strength to expand our service offerings to the entire city of Bengaluru in a stronger manner. We intend to focus on growing our subscription-based model. We are also working on service portfolio expansion. We are confident to capture the market across the country in coming months. We also hope to expand to new cities by the end of 2016.
The company’s latest offering is a subscription-based package model launched in December 2015, thus helping it become the the only home-maintenance service provider in the city to offer both on-demand services and packages. The service has seen an exponential growth in the past quarter, with over 1500 people signing up for Gapoon’s subscription packages.
Investor in the current round Chandrasekhar Tallapragada said,
This funding round will help them consolidate their position. We are really impressed by the team’s ideology, perseverance & vision for the industry. When everyone is focusing on expansion, big news & funding, team Gapoon’s meticulous approach towards operations, service delivery with a long-term vision for the service industry is incredible.
Tallapragada, who is a known veteran in the field of telecommunication services, has mentored several startups and companies earlier. Pankaj Kapoor, a director at one of the world’s leading investment banks, also participated in this round.
As for Gapoon, the startup will join the likes of several other early-stage, investor-backed ventures in this field like Fixy, HandyHome, Workhorse, Bro4U among others. On a larger scale, HouseJoy, UrbanClap and LocalOye will be Gapoon’s biggest competitors. Having said that, the domain still hasn’t achieved maturity, and only time will tell whether Gapoon fills those gaps, or becomes yet another early-stage home services venture getting itself itched in the history books, for its mere funding story.
There could also be a few M&As on cards, considering how a lot of smaller players have sprung up in Tier-II/III cities. This segment continues to remain interesting, though ironically not for technology-backed disruption, but for the sheer number of players it now has.
