Home services platform Urban Company has forayed into branded consumer products space with the launch of smart RO water purifiers. The company also said it is sharply focusing on building on “internal readiness” with plans to go for an IPO in due course.

Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Co-Founder and CEO, Urban Company, told businessline, “We are foraying in smart RO water purifiers with products that are backed with insights that we have gained over the past 7-8 years. The pain point of consumers has been the need for frequent servicing and filter changes of RO water purifiers. The category has not seen much innovation in recent times. We decided to address this problem with our new range of Native water purifiers which do not require servicing for 2 years and we are backing this claim with a comprehensive zero cost warranty for 2 years.”

He added that the RO water purifier segment is a “fairly under-penetrated category” and offers strong potential. The products are made in India and come with features such as rapid reverse rinse tech and enables users to track various parameters in real time. Bahl added that the other product line the company is looking at is smart door locks and will look at scaling up its presence in this segment too.

Urban Company ended FY23 with consolidated revenues of ₹637 crore, up 45 per cent compared to FY22. The India business broke even on an adjusted EBITDA basis during Q1 FY24 , the company had stated in August.

Asked about plans for an IPO, Bhal said, “We definitely want to go public. It’s a function of internal readiness. We have started putting some blocks in place and on-boarded three independent directors last year. We are sharply focusing on stronger governance, internal controls and readiness. But we want to go public when we are confident, internally prepared and profitable.”

The company had last raised funds in 2021 when it attained unicorn status. Asked about any future fund-raise plans, Bhal said, “We have a lot of capital—we have more than $160 million in the bank—we’re hardly burning any cash. We do not really have any major funding needs,” he said.

The company currently operates in over 53 cities in the country. “We will consistently keep adding 5-10 cities every year till we reach our goal of 100 cities.” The company also has presence in UAE, Singapore and Saudi Arabia.

The company’s Native M2 Water Purifier will be available at an introductory price of Rs 17,499 and the Native M1 Model at ₹13,499. These models are currently available on the Urban Company app and website as well as on Amazon. The products will be available offline on Croma stores soon.

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