Just a Click Separates Affluence AND Convenience
After retail, startups focus on specialist consumer services for rising middle class
Rising consumption by middleclass
Indians has spurred the launch of scores of startups that retail food, apparel
and travel products. Now, a new breed of entrepreneurs is hawking specialist
services to this affluent set of consumers in the country. These services can
range from repair and maintenance of personal gadgets to providing family
physicians — the common focus in all cases being the convenience offered.
“There is a big opportunity in bringing order to unorganised services. Startups
that can do this will find a market,” said Bharati Jacob, partner and
co-founder of early stage venture firm Seedfund. Last week, her firm provided
first round of funding for Jeeves, a startup for repair & maintenance for
all personal and household gadgets. Jacob said her fund has acquired a
significant minority stake in the company. Founded by RN Balasubramanya,
Alokeshwar Sen and SL Padmanabhan, all former employees of consumer products
company BPL, Jeeves has a network of over 200 technicians across the country.
“We focused on creating the network, tying up with brands and gaining expertise
before launching our direct-to-customer service,” said Sen. The startup is part
of a growing list of such ventures looking to cash in on growing consumer
spending in India.
According to a report by The Boston Consulting Group and the Confederation of
Indian Industry, consumer expenditure in the country will rise from $991
billion (about . 55 lakh crore) in 2010 to $3.6 trillion (. 199 lakh crore) by
2020.
Paucity of Time Primary Driver
“Double-income couples are our primary customer base. They have no time for finding repair shops,” said Prerna Bhutani, founder and CEO of home appliance repair and maintenance startup One Call India. “We fill this gap.” The company, which was launched in June 2010, has over 1,200 customers in Chennai, Gurgaon and Bangalore.
Easyfix, launched in June 2011 by Shaifali Agarwal, goes beyond just appliance repair. The company, which has operations in the Delhi-National Capital Region, employs plumbers, electricians and carpenters. The startup is launching operations in Mumbai in a couple of months.
eTechies, on the other hand, provides repair services for computers, printers, routers and iPads. It raised $2 million from Inventus Capital Partners in January this year.
“Rising incomes are just part of the story. Paucity of time is a primary driver for the growth of such services,” said Arvind Singhal, chairman of Technopak Advisors. He added that such services are not restricted to any single sector. “There is scope for companies across sectors that are able to provide consumers convenience in a time-efficient manner.”
Healthcare is another area where startups are finding opportunities for providing specialised services. Reviving the concept and practice of the family doctor is becoming an area of focus for a handful of entrepreneurs.
One such startup, Modern Family Doctor, is attempting to address primary healthcare needs by re-establishing the bond between patients and the family doctor. Launched a year ago, it operates 11 clinics in Bangalore.
“More than 70% of all medical cases can be initially addressed by a primary care physician,” said Naresh Malhotra, director of Modern Family Doctor. “I experienced it myself. For every little ailment, my mother had to go to the hospital,” said Malhotra, a former chief executive officer of Cafe Coffee Day. It is setting up new clinics in Pune, Chennai and Delhi, and aims to have 300 outlets in three years. Ventures such as Modern Family Doctor are also receiving investor support. The Silicon Valley Bank has injected . 10 crore into the company.
Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy’s venture capital firm Catamaran, Anil Ambani Group’s Reliance Venture Asset Management and USbased BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners have invested . 20.5 crore in three-year-old Mumbai-based healthcare services provider Wellspring Healthcare.
Wellspring’s CEO Kaushik Sen is also attempting to bring back the family doctor and is creating a chain of clinics, Healthspring Community Medical Centres, in Mumbai and plans to roll it out nationally later. Bangalore-based startup NationWide Primary Healthcare Services is also following a similar model. The chain’s primary care clinics focus on bridging the gap between fragmented general practitioner services and highly expensive superspecialist hospital care. It is creating a single point of medical care for patients’ everyday healthcare needs.
The two-year-old company operates in 14 locations in Bangalore, which includes its own clinics and centres in corporate offices. It plans to open 250 clinics across India in the next few years.
“People are becoming more conscious about preventive healthcare. There is a huge demand of bridging the gap of family doctor ecosystem, which you can tap from any part of the country,” said Ashwin Naik, chief executive and co-founder of Vaatsalya, a chain of affordable healthcare facilities in semi-urban and rural areas.
“Double-income couples are our primary customer base. They have no time for finding repair shops,” said Prerna Bhutani, founder and CEO of home appliance repair and maintenance startup One Call India. “We fill this gap.” The company, which was launched in June 2010, has over 1,200 customers in Chennai, Gurgaon and Bangalore.
Easyfix, launched in June 2011 by Shaifali Agarwal, goes beyond just appliance repair. The company, which has operations in the Delhi-National Capital Region, employs plumbers, electricians and carpenters. The startup is launching operations in Mumbai in a couple of months.
eTechies, on the other hand, provides repair services for computers, printers, routers and iPads. It raised $2 million from Inventus Capital Partners in January this year.
“Rising incomes are just part of the story. Paucity of time is a primary driver for the growth of such services,” said Arvind Singhal, chairman of Technopak Advisors. He added that such services are not restricted to any single sector. “There is scope for companies across sectors that are able to provide consumers convenience in a time-efficient manner.”
Healthcare is another area where startups are finding opportunities for providing specialised services. Reviving the concept and practice of the family doctor is becoming an area of focus for a handful of entrepreneurs.
One such startup, Modern Family Doctor, is attempting to address primary healthcare needs by re-establishing the bond between patients and the family doctor. Launched a year ago, it operates 11 clinics in Bangalore.
“More than 70% of all medical cases can be initially addressed by a primary care physician,” said Naresh Malhotra, director of Modern Family Doctor. “I experienced it myself. For every little ailment, my mother had to go to the hospital,” said Malhotra, a former chief executive officer of Cafe Coffee Day. It is setting up new clinics in Pune, Chennai and Delhi, and aims to have 300 outlets in three years. Ventures such as Modern Family Doctor are also receiving investor support. The Silicon Valley Bank has injected . 10 crore into the company.
Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy’s venture capital firm Catamaran, Anil Ambani Group’s Reliance Venture Asset Management and USbased BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners have invested . 20.5 crore in three-year-old Mumbai-based healthcare services provider Wellspring Healthcare.
Wellspring’s CEO Kaushik Sen is also attempting to bring back the family doctor and is creating a chain of clinics, Healthspring Community Medical Centres, in Mumbai and plans to roll it out nationally later. Bangalore-based startup NationWide Primary Healthcare Services is also following a similar model. The chain’s primary care clinics focus on bridging the gap between fragmented general practitioner services and highly expensive superspecialist hospital care. It is creating a single point of medical care for patients’ everyday healthcare needs.
The two-year-old company operates in 14 locations in Bangalore, which includes its own clinics and centres in corporate offices. It plans to open 250 clinics across India in the next few years.
“People are becoming more conscious about preventive healthcare. There is a huge demand of bridging the gap of family doctor ecosystem, which you can tap from any part of the country,” said Ashwin Naik, chief executive and co-founder of Vaatsalya, a chain of affordable healthcare facilities in semi-urban and rural areas.
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