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Pronto allows users to schedule and get housekeeping, laundry, and cleaning services in as little as ten minutes.
The company says it has over 1,000 clients in Gurugram.
Urban India is growing accustomed to not having to wait, at least when it comes to receiving deliveries of products and services. Just take a look at how quickly instant delivery apps like Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart have expanded and are still becoming more and more popular across the nation.
A startup called Pronto, which allows customers to schedule and get cleaning, laundry, and housekeeping services in less than ten minutes, is taking advantage of this shift in consumer behaviour. It has reportedly emerged from stealth with a $2 million seed investment headed by Bain Capital Ventures and a $12.5 million post-money value.
Given their potential for expansion, investors are probably excited to fund these kinds of firms, but Pronto’s funding reportedly comes as people’s concerns about how platforms treat gig workers are growing.
Two months ago, Urban Company, another venture-backed home services firm, launched a comparable service and was met with harsh public criticism. The 15-minute house cleaning service, Insta Maids, caused a lot of social media commotion right away, mostly because of the wording Urban Company selected in its advertising campaign.
Later, the company rebranded the service as Insta Help, but many people, including unions representing gig workers, seemed dissatisfied with the simple change.
Pronto, on the other hand, has three distinct scheduling options for its cleaning, laundry, and meal prep services: recurrent, planned, and immediate (10 minutes). The company promises 10-minute service access in all supported areas, and services are available around the clock. In Gurugram, the company claims to have over 1,000 clients.
According to TechCrunch, Anjali Sardana, the founder and CEO of Pronto, claims her company wants to address the issues faced by gig workers by using a “win, win, win business approach that benefits all parties.
“What’s missing from a lot of the language around these services is that they treat workers like commodities. They treat them as inputs. That’s not the way we operate,” she told TechCrunch. “We sit at the same hubs where these workers are coming in and out every day. And the reason being that, as soon as you start putting separation between yourself and the worker, you lose empathy for them,” she added.
About 4 million domestic workers are employed in India, according to government estimates; however, unofficial sources place the figure closer to 50 million. Nevertheless, the majority of these workers are employed in the unorganised sector, which Pronto considers a major rival.
According to Pronto, if employees work eight hours a day for 30 days, they can make around Rs 22,000 (approximately $258) every month. Additionally, it provides performance bonuses that can increase their monthly total compensation to between Rs 25,000 and Rs 26,000, or roughly $293 and $304.
Pronto launched its first hub in late March after beginning a service pilot in Gurugram in December. Nearly 70 per cent of its clients, according to the company, had asked for its services twice in the last 14 days.
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Delhi, India, India
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