Synopsis
Home services platform Urban Company reported a 57-fold jump in net loss to Rs 161 crore in the March quarter of FY26, primarily due to increased spending on its InstaHelp segment. The company is prioritizing market share over short-term profitability in this competitive on-demand domestic help market.The Gurugram-based company’s founder and chief executive, Abhiraj Singh Bhal, however, said InstaHelp’s losses would remain elevated as Urban Company prioritises market share over short-term profitability. “In the short run, you can either optimise for market share or optimise for on-paper elegance. We are not choosing elegance. We are optimising to win and capture market share, which means if we have to match irrationality from time to time, we are fully prepared to do so,” he said during an analyst call.
Urban Company’s InstaHelp service competes with venture capital-backed startups Snabbit and Pronto, both of which have recently raised significant funding.
The widening losses were also driven by the company writing off tax benefits worth nearly Rs 36 crore during FY26 after reviewing its recent financial performance and future profit outlook, according to notes to its financial statements. The write-off increased tax expenses for the period. On a pre-tax basis, Urban Company reported a loss of Rs 99.8 crore in Q4FY26, compared with a profit of Rs 1.4 crore in the same quarter last year.
Urban Company’s aggressive expansion of InstaHelp, its high-frequency housekeeping vertical, was the primary factor behind the deeper losses in the March quarter, even as the business scaled rapidly to Rs 40 crore in net transaction value (NTV).
“Q4 adjusted Ebitda loss (for InstaHelp) was Rs 119 crore, reflecting two-sided subsidies to densify the network, supply onboarding, and marketing for new trials,” the company said in a letter to shareholders.
Bhal said InstaHelp remains the company’s biggest investment area. The vertical grew from near-zero at the start of FY26 to around 2.7 million orders by year-end. Monthly orders rose to 1.1 million in March from about 625,000 in December.
“We expect InstaHelp burn to remain elevated over the next few quarters as we prioritise densification, broader micro-market coverage, and accelerated partner onboarding,” he said.
The scale-up comes amid intensifying competition in the instant domestic help segment. Rival Snabbit also crossed the 1 million bookings mark in March, while Pronto recorded 500,000 orders during the month.
Urban Company’s expenses rose 74% year-on-year to Rs 556.8 crore from Rs 320 crore a year earlier, driven largely by higher employee benefit expenses, purchase of stock-in-trade, and customer acquisition costs linked to InstaHelp.
Currently present in 51 cities, Urban Company’s total NTV for the quarter stood at Rs 1,148 crore, up 42% year-on-year across its 60-plus services. The platform reported 66,818 monthly active professionals and 8.4 million annual transacting users.
While India accounts for the bulk of the company’s business, revenue from its international operations rose 89% year-on-year to Rs 58 crore. International NTV grew 84% to Rs 211 crore despite disruptions caused by the Middle East conflict during the March quarter.
Urban Company said cash and bank balances stood at Rs 2,021 crore at the end of the March quarter.
Rival Snabbit closed a $56 million funding round at a $350 million valuation in April. Pronto, meanwhile, raised $20 million in May, doubling the instant domestic help startup’s valuation to $200 million from March levels.
Urban Company’s shares fell 6.02% to Rs 137.8 apiece on the NSE on Friday.
