Urban Company’s losses widen in Q3 over InstaHelp investment

Bengaluru: Urban Company Ltd posted a loss for the second successive quarter since its listing and predicted more losses in coming quarters on the back of increased investment in InstaHelp, the company’s quick help service vertical that provides services such as cleaning, sweeping, mopping, and cleaning.

The Gurugram-headquartered company posted a net loss of ₹21.16 crore in the October-December quarter against a net profit of ₹231.84 crore in the same quarter last year. It had reported a loss of ₹59.33 crore in the second (July-September 2025) quarter.

However, the company reported a 32.91% year-on-year rise in revenue to ₹382.68 crore.

“The consolidated business had achieved adjusted Ebitda breakeven during FY25,” the company said in its December quarter shareholder letter. (Ebitda is short for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization.)

“With stepped-up investments in building InstaHelp, we expect the consolidated business to remain loss-making for the next few quarters,” the letter read. “The InstaHelp opportunity is significant and immediate, and we are committed to maintaining clear market leadership.”

In a post-earnings call with analysts, co-founder and CEO Abhiraj Singh Bhal said the company expects loss per order in InstaHelp to continue declining over time, even if the pace of improvement moderates.

Bhal said that profits from the rest of the business should be “sufficiently large enough to offset InstaHelp losses by Q3 FY28”, and that this breakeven is expected to be sustainable rather than volatile.

Urban Company has four main business segments—India consumer services, InstaHelp, Native (products), and international operations.

India consumer services continued to anchor the company’s revenue base, reporting revenue of ₹265 crore during the December quarter, up 26% year-on-year. The vertical connects users with professionals with on-demand household needs such as beauty and wellness, repairs and maintenance, and cleaning and painting.

Growth drivers

Growth was driven by steady new user additions, and strong festive-season demand across core categories such as beauty, home cleaning and repairs. Bhal said margins in the segment are expected to improve steadily, with FY26 likely to be “slightly ahead of FY25”, followed by continued expansion in FY27 and beyond.

Bhal said that the company has a “very clear line of sight” on margin expansion in its core businesses, and that India consumer services and international operations will be the “big drivers of profitability” going ahead. He said that while margins may fluctuate quarter-on-quarter due to seasonality, they are best assessed on a year-on-year basis.

InstaHelp, launched in March 2025, scaled rapidly during the third quarter, clocking NTV of ₹28 crore, up sharply from ₹10 crore in the previous quarter. NTV stands for net transaction value, or a company’s total value of customer orders.

While revenue contribution from InstaHelp remained modest relative to the core business, accelerated customer adoption, repeat usage and order growth reflected early product-market fit. However, aggressive investments in expansion and supply build-out resulted in an adjusted Ebitda loss of ₹61 crore, making InstaHelp the primary drag on consolidated profitability during the period.

The Native (products) segment delivered the fastest revenue growth among all segments, with revenue rising 101% year-on-year to ₹62 crore. Growth was led by strong demand for water purifiers and electronic door locks, though sequential momentum moderated after the previous quarter benefited from large e-commerce sale events. Bhal said Native remains early-stage but has shown margin improvement, with absolute losses continuing to narrow.

Urban Company’s international operations, comprising the UAE and Singapore markets, reported revenue of ₹50 crore, up 79% year-on-year, supported by an expanded service assortment and improved value proposition. The company noted that international markets remain a key growth lever, benefiting from rising urban adoption and increasing customer acquisition efficiency. Bhal said these markets are expected to “grow profitably and continue to compound” going forward.

Meanwhile, rival on-demand domestic help platform Snabbit has raised over $56 million in funding so far, per data sourced from research firm Tracxn. Its latest funding round in October last year was worth $30m led by Bertelsmann India Investments, along with existing investors Lightspeed, Elevation Capital, and Nexus Venture Partners. In December, Mint reported that Snabbit is in talks to raise another $100 million-120 million from new and existing investors at a valuation of $500-550 million.

Meanwhile, smaller rival Pronto founded in May last year has already raised just over $13 million in funding, per data sourced from Tracxn. Investors include General Catalyst, Glade Brook Capital, and Bain Capital Ventures.