Urban Company wants to become more than a home services firm.
“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. That home platform cannot exist without a frequency layer — and that frequency layer is InstaHelp,” its co-founder and CEO Abhiraj Singh Bhal said.
During Urban Company’s Q2 FY27 analysts’ call, Bhal said that in micro-markets where Urban Company offers 10-minute quick home services via InstaHelp alongside its core services, roughly 45% of all new users on the platform are now coming through InstaHelp.
This is why Urban Company plans to keep investing in InstaHelp, even as it drags down its overall profitability.
“InstaHelp’s value to Urban Company is larger than its own P&L. It is our highest-frequency offering: a household that books it three times a month opens the app far more often than a core services customer, keeping us top of mind for every other home need and making it harder for a single-category competitor to build the same habit. It has also become a meaningful acquisition channel,” Urban Company said.
Minus InstaHelp, Urban Company reported an adjusted EBITDA of Rs 30 crore in Q2 FY27. However, its consolidated adjusted EBITDA stood at negative Rs 144 crore, which the company attributed almost entirely to the Rs 174 crore investment it made in InstaHelp during the quarter.
The management said it is investing aggressively in InstaHelp “by choice” because it is a “winner-takes-most category with a clear window to cement leadership”.
In a shareholders’ letter, the home services firm said it has secured board approval to raise Rs 2,500 crore in what will be its first fundraise since listing on stock exchanges last September. The capital will, among other things, allow Urban Company to gain market share in the instant home services category, where InstaHelp is facing intense competition from unlisted peers such as Snabbit and Pronto.
InstaHelp narrows loss per order as unit economics improve
Urban Company lost Rs 279 per InstaHelp order in Q2 FY27, about 19% less than Rs 346 it was losing per order in Q1 FY27.
InstaHelp fulfilled 6.2 million orders in the July-September quarter, up 63% sequentially, while net transaction value rose 34% quarter-on-quarter to Rs 71 crore.
According to management, unit economics are improving as order density increases.
“More orders per micro-market meant shorter travel between jobs and more productive partner hours. Density also lowers per-order support costs. Per-order cost to serve is improving now through density, which is within our control; per-rupee economics will improve as pricing normalises,” it said in its shareholders’ letter.
On the analysts’ call, however, Bhal cautioned that orders ride on artificially low prices. “Once pricing fully corrects, we will see a downward correction in the orders as well.”
Steady-state economics in this business, he said, need pricing of roughly Rs 200 an hour and net order value of about Rs 300, against Rs 150 an hour payout for gig workers and another Rs 50 per hour that would cover customer support, marketing, team costs, and training.
InstaHelp saw net order value slide to Rs 114 in Q2 FY27 from Rs 138 in the preceding quarter as Urban Company introduced lower introductory pricing to acquire new customers amid high competition.
Urban Company eyes M&As to expand core services
The home services firm is also selectively pursuing inorganic growth opportunities through mergers and acquisitions (M&As).
Either an M&A should allow us to consolidate a particular market that we find ourselves in, or it should allow us to enter a new category or market.
Now, given that, we’ve explicitly said in the past as well that we don’t look to enter any new countries. For India Core, 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 buying, provided things are accretive from a valuation standpoint — Urban Company CEO.
When asked if the company was considering a potential acquisition in the InstaHelp category, he said, “I’d never say never, but it’s highly unlikely.”
Urban Company to foray into residential air conditioner segment
Urban Company is set to bring residential air conditioners under Native, its in-house brand currently selling water purifiers and smart locks.
“We believe we are on track to launching an air conditioner device,” Bhal said on the analysts’ call.
When asked why Native is foraying into AC when it is still not profitable, he said the management sees it as a long-term growth opportunity.
We do almost 10 times more air conditioner servicing, repair and installation orders compared to water purifiers, and the category is also perhaps 10 times larger in terms of total addressable market.
Operating Metrics (Urban Company – consolidated)
- Annual transacting users: Rose to 9.96 million in Q2 FY27 from 9.28 million in Q1 FY27.
- Total orders: Stood at 15.1 million, compared with 13.2 million in the preceding quarter.
- Net order value: Fell to Rs 949 from Rs 1,010 in Q1 FY27.
- Monthly active service partners: Increased to 94,845 from 78,824 in the quarter ended June 2026.
Also read:
- Urban Company seeks fresh funding after 2025 IPO as InstaHelp continues to burn cash
- Urban Company loses Rs 346 per InstaHelp order; Average order value declines amid high competition
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