Unable to reach the desired scale and profits, Mumbai-based home services startup Taskbob has shut shop. In an internal communication, Taskbob co-founder and CEO Aseem Khare said the company shut down its operations as of January 19 due to unforeseen circumstances. “…due to unforeseen circumstances, Taskbob will be shutting down its operations as of 19th January. All the orders already placed in the system will be duly processed,” he said.
When contacted, the company said it has 10 employees, all of whom have been offered a severance package. However, it did not disclose benefits that the package offered. In his mail, Khare did not spell out the reason for the closure. However, he indicated that the company was unable to build scalability and profitability.
“Even though, we could create a significant difference in customers’, service providers’ and teams’ lives, a solid business is created only by building scalability and profitability. And to achieve those in a low margin business and in a tough external market proved unexpectedly daunting. More than what anyone could have expected,” he said.
Set up in December 2014 by Khare, Abhiroop Medhekar, Ajay Bhatt and Amit Chahalia, the company had raised over USD 5 million in funding fromIvyCap VenturesandOrios Venture Partners. It had also acquired Zepper, a Bengaluru-based home services startup.
The company, which had raised its last round of funding in February 2016, competed with the likes of UrbanClap and HouseJoy. It claims to have served over 1.5 lakh orders in the past two years.
Last year, some of the startups that shut shop included Snapdeal-backed PepperTap and AskMe. Thousands of startups have mushroomed across the country and many of them have successfully raised funding from investors in the last two-three years. However, high cash-burn forced many others to scale down, shut operations or sell their business.
“…even though Taskbob is shutting down operations, the Taskbob spirit will stay alive… we have shared the list of all Taskbob verified service professionals – across electricians, plumbers, carpenters, appliance repairmen, house cleaners, car cleaners, drivers, etc on the Taskbob App.
These are carefully screened, background verified & police verified, trained and skilled. You could directly call them whenever you are in trouble next time,” he said, adding “we will be back soon, better, stronger.”
