Synopsis
Instant domestic help platforms like Urban Company, Snabbit, and Pronto are experiencing worker shortages. This is causing limited availability for users in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. Demand is surging, but a lack of workers is disrupting services. Platforms are working to add more supply to meet user needs.Listen to this article in summarized format
Across several micro-markets, 15-minute bookings have become unavailable for days and even near-term slots have turned grey.
While Snabbit flagged this as a seasonal disruption, Pronto said it is operating at full supply capacity and any regional unavailability is due to heavy bookings. Urban Company did not immediately respond to queries.
The segment, which started as an on-demand and ‘instant’ model, first saw an impact on some services in a few micro-markets as several workers returned home due to assembly elections in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, as well as for the harvest season in agrarian states.
The crunch comes amid surging traction for the segment, which clocked 10 million monthly users in March, according to a Morgan Stanley report.
“We are currently doing about 23,000 bookings a day on weekdays and about 26,000 on weekends. We are fully booked, which is why slots are unavailable in some regions,” said Anjali Sardana, founder of Pronto.
She said demand is increasing by 20% week-on-week. “We have a diverse supply base of professionals and we are continuing to add more supply to the platform,” Sardana added.
Typically, sectors like food delivery, quick commerce, ecommerce and logistics, which depend heavily on migrant populations for their last-mile services, face gig worker shortages during summer, harvest season and even the festive season when demand picks up.
