Listed home services major Urban Company’s board approved a proposal to raise up to ₹2,500 Cr yesterday, seeking to shore up its war chest at a critical juncture.

On one hand, Urban Company’s instant home services business, InstaHelp, is facing stiff competition. Fighting rivals Snabbit and Pronto for a slice of the market has turned out to be an expensive affair, with spending on InstaHelp contributing to Urban Company’s widening losses.

At the same time, the company is looking to expand its product lineup under the Native brand by entering the residential air conditioner market. Meanwhile, its bread and butter consumer services continue to generate stable results.

Urban Company’s financials reflect these pressures. The company reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of ₹144 Cr in Q2 FY27, driven by a ₹174 Cr investment in InstaHelp. Excluding InstaHelp, it reported an adjusted EBITDA profit of ₹30 Cr.

During the quarter, consolidated revenue from operations grew 41.4% YoY to ₹537.3 Cr, while total expenses increased 61.5% to ₹745.7 Cr. Consequently, the company’s consolidated net loss more than tripled to ₹182.5 Cr from ₹59.3 Cr in the year-ago period.

However, the management maintains that Urban Company can meet its profitability targets without the proposed fundraise Yet, the management has rejected the suggestion that the fundraise is necessary to offset InstaHelp’s impact on its financials.

How Badly Does Urban Company Need The Cash?

Urban Company has positioned the proposed ₹2,500 Cr fundraise as a means to bolster its balance sheet and provide greater flexibility to invest across its businesses.

“Our ambition is to go beyond being just a home services company and eventually become the trusted home platform for Indian consumers – almost the operating system for the Indian home. So given that ambition, we want the strategic flexibility over the next few years to invest in all our areas of business,” CEO Abhiraj Singh Bhal told analysts during the company’s Q2 FY27 earnings call.

The company also plans to deploy the capital towards growth opportunities, including acquisitions. While no acquisition deals have been finalised till now, the management is evaluating opportunities that could help Urban Company consolidate its position in an existing market or enter a new category.

Bhal added that the company would take an opportunistic approach to international markets and Native. However, an acquisition in InstaHelp would be “highly unlikely”.

“If at all we do an M&A, it would be to add on categories that we don’t operate in today where we feel that the decision of build versus buy may be tilting in favour of buy,” he noted.

Urban Company has guided for adjusted EBITDA breakeven by Q3 FY28 and ₹1,000 Cr in adjusted EBITDA profit by FY31. The management maintained that its current financial position, even without raising additional capital, is sufficient to meet these targets.

However, Bhal acknowledged that the company’s existing balance sheet limits its financial flexibility, given InstaHelp’s losses.

While the management maintains that the company can meet its profitability targets without additional capital, the proposed fundraise would provide it with greater room to invest in growth and respond to changing market conditions.

In particular, Urban Company is facing intense competition in the emerging quick home services segment. For instance, after Urban Company disclosed that InstaHelp completed 6.2 Mn orders in Q2, Snabbit’s founder Aayush Agarwal claimed that the startup had served 6.45 Mn orders during the period.

Diving Into A New Market

While it faces intense competition in the quick home services market, Urban Company is simultaneously looking to expand into a new category. 

Alongside approving the fundraise proposal, its board proposed exploring residential air conditioners as a new business under its consumer appliances brand Native, whose portfolio currently comprises water purifiers and smart locks.

“We’ve now operated in the segment of air conditioning servicing and repair for close to 11-12 years, ever since the inception of the company. And there’s a lot of data and knowledge that we have gathered on what are the consumer pain points and what are some of the unmet needs of the consumers. Based on those data points and our own understanding of the market and the unmet needs, we have been quietly working on creating an innovative cutting-edge product,” Bhal told analysts on the call.

The company is yet to disclose further details, including a commercial launch timeline. Notably, Inc42 reported last year about Urban Company’s potential foray into AC business.

Bhal said the first one to two years in the new market would focus on learning and gathering customer feedback. He also noted that Urban Company’s app would be the sole distribution channel for its ACs.

The CEO emphasised a “calibrated and measured” approach to capital allocation, adding that Native has a clear path to profitability that should not be affected by the new venture.

For context, Native’s net transaction value (NTV) grew 35.4% YoY in Q2 FY27, while operating revenue rose 40% to ₹105 Cr. The segment remained loss-making on an adjusted EBITDA basis, reporting a loss of ₹9 Cr. However, loss as a percentage of NTV declined to 6.8% from 9% a year ago.

Urban Company’s platform sees 10X as many AC servicing, repair, and installation orders as water purifier orders, giving it a larger existing customer base for AC-related services. This provides a potential channel to market Native’s ACs, although service demand does not necessarily translate into appliance sales. 

With InstaHelp facing stiff competition and Native preparing to enter a new product category, Urban Company is pursuing multiple growth opportunities even as its losses widen. The proposed fundraise would provide additional capital to support these plans, although the management maintains that the company can achieve its stated profitability targets without it.

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