Urban Company is the best company to have come out of the Indian Startup Ecosystem. Here's why

Urban Company is probably the best company to have come out of the Indian Startup Ecosystem. Their journey is nothing short of exemplary, and thankfully the numbers confirm the same.

In FY25, UC did an operating revenue of ₹1,144 Cr, with a net profit (b/f tax) of ₹28.5 Cr. Its core services business fetched ₹742 Cr, while the rest came from product sales to its professionals (₹188 Cr), sales of its 'Native' water purifiers (₹116 Cr), and memberships (₹98 Cr). Apparently, the core services had a gross margin of 15%, netting ₹113 Cr. Which is not bad at all. And then there was also an income from interest and sales of mutual funds (₹117 Cr). Nice.

Keeping the employee and promotion costs unchanged, UC could grow 38% YoY. Which is nothing short of terrific.

But these numbers (no matter how good) don't fully convey what an incredible feat team UC has achieved. The figures are okay, but there should be a special score of how the company has operated all this while.

Firstly, their business is EXTRAORDINARILY hard. And even that is an understatement of the century. On-demand aggregation of services is infinitely harder than aggregation of anything else. Think about cabs. How many moving parts does Cab aggregation have? There's the driver, the quality of his car, his basic conduct (which is to say, he needs to be mostly quiet)... and that's it. But even with those limited moving parts, how did Cab aggregation fair in India as far as quality of ops is concerned?

Such is the inherent hardness of running an ops heavy business in India, that long after BluSmart's implosion, nobody can even name a close second as far as basic quality of service is considered. And that's when Cab aggregation has burnt over ₹35,000 Cr in all these years.

Now multiply that difficulty level by atleast 100, and then you'll have what UC deals with every day. It's a firestorm of operational nightmares which would scare someone even when they're awake. But somehow UC manages to shine through, all day, every day.

And this is not just my perception. For a long time, UC didn't have any major competitor at all. After Housejoy imploded (due to complicated reasons beyond the scope of this article), there was nobody who could take on this space. And it's not like nobody wanted to. Many tried, including major players like Flipkart. But it just didn't work.

Why? It's because people are intrinsically unpredictable and unreliable. And when it comes to those "qualities", Indians are in a different league altogether. When it comes to work ethics, Indians are not exactly like Japanese (or even Chinese), we're more like Nigerians. Maybe it's because we're so densely populated (490 persons/Sq Km, as compared to 150 even in China) that we just can't afford to think about other people. But whatever it is, running an ops heavy business in this environment requires brass balls.

And UC did it. At scale. And with such dignity and grace. Hats off!

From pioneering the concept of "dignity of labour", to organising frequent liquidation events for its ESOP holders, Urban Company has helped EVERYONE along the way, and still find a way to make money. A huge congratulations and best wishes to everyone involved. Hope you grow from strength to strength! :)

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