🏠 Urban Company | Acquisition Project
🏠

Urban Company | Acquisition Project

All the data used in making this has been taken from:

Urban Company's Website

Similar Web

Urban Company - cool name 😎 | Pitch it!


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As cool as the name sounds, it's a company for the Urban households that has transformed
A) Convenience B) Accessibility for home essential services like home cleaning, salon & spa, carpentering, electricians etc.


Sounds exciting, but WTF is Urban Company?

Picture this, it is 2012 & Cleaning bathrooms, Overgrown beards, Broken cupboards & Messed up furniture items in the living room means running after 3 different blue-collared people to fix them.

This was the struggle of every young Indian in an Urban Household. The market of blue-collared home service workforce was completely unorganised & heavily cluttered with local agencies & individual gig-workers.

In Nov'14, a movement began that redefined convenience & accessibility of essential home services for India forever - UrbanClap was born (changed to Urban Company in Jan'20).

What does the picture look today?

-> 5.8 Million Transacting users (FY'23)
-> 77% repeat rate (We expect this number to surpass 90% in the coming years. ~ UC)
-> 60+ Cities
-> 4.82 Avg. Rating in FY23
-> Losses: Rs 308Cr in FY23 (Rs 514 Cr in FY25) 😅


Worker satisfaction:

• The top 20% of partners earned an average of ~ INR 40,000 per month, net of all commissions and other related costs (Travel, product expenses etc.) in H1 CY23

• The average net earnings of partners delivering >30 services per month were ~ INR 32,000


Services:
  • Beauty and Salon makes up of 50% total bookings followed by home services (cleaning)


-> Beyond direct competitors like Yes Madam or Housejoy, indirect solutions like local service providers or freelance apps are relevant.

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Understanding Core Value Proposition

-> UC’s core is offering trust, convenience, and expertise in personal and home services—solving user problems like time constraints, service uncertainty, and quality assurance.

-> Customer's love Urban Company: 77% repeat rate (FY23),
"We expect this number to surpass 90% in the coming years" ~ UC (Official statement on the website)

What do the users look like?


Urban Company's Web Traffic Analysis:

1. Gender Ratio:
68% Males | 32% Females

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2. Age:
18-24 : 20.79% ()
25-34 : 40.49% ()
35-44 : 14.42% ()
45-54 : 10.09% ()
55-64 : 7.84% ()
65+ : 6.37% ()

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3. What other platforms do they visit:
- yesmadam.com
- hometriangle.com
- serviceonwheel.com


4. Top industries they are in:
Computers, Electronics & Technology > Investing > Programming & Software development > Finance - other > Banking

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Marketing Channels:

1. Organic Search: 45.01%
2. Direct: 37.62%
3. Paid ads: 11.89% 
4. Referrals: 3.19%
5. Social: 1.8%
6. Display: 0.42%
7. Mail: 0.07%

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Social Media Channels:

1. YouTube - 53.53%
2. Others - 15.56%
3. Linkedin - 9.95%
4. Twitter - 7.8%
5. Facebook - 7.27%
6. Instagram - 5.89%

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Google Form Survey:

I conducted a survey with 12+ people, a variety of people living in metro & tier 2 cities and with varying professions, lifestyles & product usage patterns.

  • Most users use Urban Company occasionally.
  • 10/12 People discovered Urban Company organically/ through a friend/ worth of mouth.
  • 100% have used it more than once.
  • All of them had used it at least for a cleaning service.
  • Screenshot 2024-10-26 at 4.42.34 PM.png

Here are the repsonses to the survey:


User interviews

Issues identified in the user journey:

-> Automatically addition of UC Plus membership even when you haven’t bought it, people become frustrated and even sometimes confused and dropped in between.

Important user patterns:
  • People have referred to their friends/family, UC has strong WOM but people are not even aware about Referral program
  • People who are moving to new city or place wanted to UC expand its service to handle end to end for shifting like acting as logistic to clean and fix the house before moving
Recent trends:
  • Men Salon has started picking up, a lot of male users have started adopting UC for haircut to start with as they feel wait time is quite high at local salons and they can get it at comfort of their home
  • Male massage in high income group has been a hit, people who have taken one service have become regular customer. It’s fast growing section with good AOV.



ICP table, based on Data, Survey & User interviews

Criteria

User 1

User 2

Name

Shina

Shinu

Age

25

​45

Need

Makeup & Hair

Cleaning the dirty home

Pain Point

Convenience

Urgency

Solution

Salon & Spa service

Home cleaning service

Behaviour

Repetitive

Repetitive

Perceived Value of Brand

Premium

Convenient & Affordable w.r.t quality provided

Goals

Look nice & pretty

Home should look clean

Frequency of use case

Occasionally

Occasionally

Average Spend on the product

​1,500

​2,200

Value Accessibility to product

Yes

​Yes

Appetite to Pay

Yes

​Yes

Referral potential

Medium to High

High

How did they discover UC

Through a friend

Through a neighbour

City

Tier 1

Tier 2

Trigger of purchase

Occasion/ Event

Festival/ People coming at home

Competitive Landscape

  • The competitive landscape today includes the likes of HouseJoy, the only player standing that started along with Urban company. HouseJoy has taken the direction of renovating homes
  • Then there is Quikrr which raised a significant amount of money just to build its muscle in the home services market
  • The latest entrant is prop-tech company No-broker which has seamlessly introduced house cleaning services for people who have just moved in or vacated homes found through their platform. They are expanding their portfolio of services gradually.
  • Mr.Right is the other player that primarily focuses on being a marketplace to connect users with repair service providers in their area.

Acquisition Strategy

Channel 1: Organic


Organic Keywords:
  • Urban Company currently ranks using 4K keywords.
  • 83% Traffic is driven by Organic Search & Direct (combined).
  • Thus, this is an already proven channel with a low-cost which must doubled down on.

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Urban Company falls behind in certain very common keywords.
Salon & Spa makes up 50% of their revenue, yet a simple google search of "spa at home" led to a long list of services without Urban Company showing up.


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Just Dial was the top result in most common household services:


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Baseline Organic Traffic Calculation

Since 83% of Urban Company’s total traffic comes from organic search and direct traffic, we can estimate the current organic traffic as follows:

  • Assumption: Organic search constitutes approximately 45% of total visits (with direct traffic being the other portion of the 83%).

Current Monthly Organic Visits = 1.946 million × 0.45 = 0.8757 million

Thus, Urban Company’s current organic traffic is approximately 875,700 visits per month.


Projected Increase in Organic Traffic from Keyword Expansion

To expand from 4,000 keywords to 6,000 keywords (a 50% increase), we estimate that traffic could grow by 30-50% from keyword expansion.

New Organic Traffic from Keyword Expansion = 875,700 × 1.3 to 1.5 = 1,138,410 to 1,313,550

This represents an increase of 262,710 to 437,850 additional monthly visits from keyword expansion.


Projected Increase from Ranking Optimization

Improving the ranking of 20% of existing keywords (800 keywords) from positions 5–15 to the top 3 could further increase traffic, as top positions capture significantly more clicks. With each improved keyword yielding 2–3x the traffic, we can calculate the additional traffic as follows:

Additional Traffic from Ranking Improvements = 875,700 × 0.2 × 2.5 = 437,850 additional monthly visits


Total Projected New Organic Traffic

Combining the increases from keyword expansion and ranking optimization:

Total Projected Organic Traffic = 1,138,410 + 437,850 = 1,576,260 to 1,313,550 + 437,850 = 1,751,400

This brings the total organic traffic to between 1.576 million and 1.751 million visits per month.


Conversion Rate and Revenue Impact

Assuming a 2% conversion rate on organic traffic:

New Monthly Conversions = 1,576,260 × 0.02 to 1,751,400 × 0.02
= 31,525 to 35,028 new customers per month

Using the ARPU (ARPU calculated in the next channel) of INR 1098.28, we can calculate the additional revenue as follows:

Additional Monthly Revenue = 31,525 × 1098.28 to 35,028 × 1098.28
= INR 34,619,737.70 to INR 38,458,981.84

Annualised Revenue Impact

Annualised Additional Revenue = 34,619,737.70 × 12 to 38,458,981.84 × 12
= INR 415,436,852.40 to INR 461,507,782.08


This means Urban Company could potentially add INR 415 million to INR 461 million in annual revenue from organic search alone.


Total Estimated Annual Cost

Expected costs:

  • Content Creation: INR 3.6 million
  • SEO Team (In-House or Agency): INR 3.1–6 million
  • Technical SEO/Development: INR 1.5 million
  • SEO Tools: INR 0.12–0.18 million
  • Link Building and PR: INR 2.4–3.6 million


Estimated Total Cost Range: INR 10.72 million to INR 14.88 million

Conclusion:


With the additional projected annual revenue of INR 415–461 million, the estimated cost of INR 10.72–14.88 million yields a high return on investment.

  • Annual SEO Cost: INR 1.07–1.49 crore
  • Projected Annual Revenue Uplift: INR 41.5–46.1 crore
  • ROI: 28x to 38x
  • Traffic from Organic/Direct: 83%


Channel 2: Referral Program

  1. Total Revenue (FY23): INR 637 crore (6370 million INR)
  2. Transacting Users: 5.8 million
  3. Repeat Rate: 77%
  4. Average Ratings: 4.82/5, suggesting high customer satisfaction which can imply a longer lifetime.
  5. Revenue Growth: 45% YoY, indicating increasing engagement and spending.


​ARPU = [ Transacting Users / Total Revenue​ ]

Given:

  • Total Revenue = 637 crore
  • Transacting Users = 5.8 million

So,

ARPU = 637 crore / 5.8 million

ARPU ≈ 1098.28

The ARPU is approximately INR 1098.28 per user.​


For LTV, we need to know:
  • Average customer lifespan
  • Average gross margin per customer

Assumptions for Urban Company:

  • With a 77% repeat rate, we can estimate that loyal customers may stay for approximately 3 years.
  • Let’s assume an approximate gross margin of 20% based on industry norms for services businesses.

Using the formula:

LTV = AOV × Average Transactions per Year × Average Lifespan × Gross Margin
Using 2 transactions / year, a lifespan of 3 years, and 20% margin:
LTV = 549.14×2×3×0.2 = INR 658.97


Estimated LTVINR 658.97


To calculate AOV, we need to assume an average number of orders per transacting user annually.

Given a 77% repeat rate, let’s assume an average of 2 transactions per user for FY23 (a conservative estimate to account for non-repeat customers). Then:

AOV = Total Revenue / Total Transactions​

Total transactions (with 2 per user):

5.8 million users × 2 = 11.6 million transactions 5.8million users × 2 = 11.6million transactions

So,

AOV= 6370 million / 11.6 million ≈ INR 549.14

Estimated AOVINR 549.14


Referral Program success??

Referral Program Reach

Assuming a 5% referral rate, we estimate how many of these users would refer Urban Company to others:

Referred Users = Initial User Base × Referral Rate = 5.8 million × 0.05 = 290,000  referrals

So, 290,000 users are likely to refer Urban Company to others.


Click Rate on Referral Message

Out of these referrals, we assume a 30% WhatsApp message click rate:

Clicks = Referred Users × Click Rate = 290,000 × 0.30 = 87,000 clicks

So, 87,000 users are likely to click on the referral link/message.


App Install Rate

Assuming a 50% install rate from those who clicked:

Installs = Clicks × Install Rate Installs = 7,000 × 0.50 = 43,500  installs = 87,000 × 0.50 = 43,500 installs

So, 43,500 users are likely to install the app.


Onboarding and Service Availment Rate

With an onboarding rate of 40%, representing those who fully onboard and redeem the referral incentive by availing of the service:

Onboarded Users = Installs × Onboarding Rate = 43,500 × 0.40 = 17,400 new users

So, Potential new users acquired via referrals17,400


Unit Economics

Each new user through the referral program costs INR 100 (in referral bonuses).

So, Total Referral Cost = New Users × Referral Bonus = 17,400 × 100 = INR 1,740,000

So, Cost to Urban Company would be: INR 17,40,000


Total Revenue Add

Total Revenue Add = New Users × LTV = 17,400 × 658.97 ≈ INR 11,464,078

So, Total addition in Urban Company's revenue would be: INR 1,14,64,078



Conclusion


By repositioning the referral program as the centerpiece, Urban Company could acquire an estimated 17,400 new users at a total cost of INR 1.74 million in referral bonuses which would add a total of INR 11.46 million in revenue over these customers’ lifetime. This shift could also improve the user experience by eliminating the irritations caused by the current automatic membership plug.


ROI: 558.86%


Design Changes:



This was my 1st attempt of working on a product that's at post - PMF stage
So far, I've worked only with & around very early stage startups (all pre - PMF)

It'll get better with each project (pinky promise), thank you <3























































































































































































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