Not sure where you can get a yoga trainer or how to cash in on your baking skills? FindYahan.com promises to give you the answers.
A hyper-local online marketplace for services started by budding entrepreneurs Rachit Mathur, 31, and Snehil Khanor, 24, the portal caught the attention of Amanpreet Bajaj, founder of LetsBuy.com, which was acquired by Flipkart in 2012. Bajaj has come in as an investor and advisor.
The one-year-old platform connects verified service providers in the food, beauty and wellness, domestic help, business services and events sectors with customers. It also allows individuals to market their skills.
A customer has to fill a short online form for the desired service which then gets passed on to service providers, said Mathur, a graduate in International Business from Canada’s York University.
“One can also find out, for example, if anyone from your social circle has already availed the services of a caterer,” he said.
The services are now available only in New Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida and Faridabad. “We plan to consolidate in NCR (National Capital Region) and then expand to Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad,” said Khanor, who had done his BTech in Computer Science. FindYahan plans to add more service providers such as tutors and drivers who are looking for part-time employment.
The five-member team — including two other investors: Rajatish Mukherjee and Rahul Mehta — has pumped in about ₹50 lakh. “Now we are in talks with venture capital firms for funding and look to raise $500,000 soon,” said Mathur. The portal plans to start charging service providers for the leads, but will remain free for customers. “We have a prepaid system where you can keep buying leads and top up accordingly,” said Khanor.
“We can breakeven in three-four months, but we plan to scale up so it might take a year for us to break even.” The portal, at present, has 4,000 verified providers and has generated 20,000 leads for service providers with 35 per cent of them ending in transactions.