Amazon-backed Housejoy acquires tech startup Orobind

BENGALURU: Amazon-backed Housejoy is acquiring at-home personal fitness tech startup Orobind for an undisclosed amount, stepping up consolidation in the home services market.

The deal represents a growing trend in the sector where a few well-funded players are buying smaller rivals through bolt-onstock deals or acqui-hires.

Bengaluru-based Zimmber acquired its smaller rival, Gurgaon-based competitor FindYahan, earlier this week, while local services marketplace UrbanClap has also been in talks to buy aftersales service platform HandyHome.

Others like Sulekha are also looking to make acquisitions. The latest deal is part of Housejoy’s strategy of strengthening its portfolio and is its second acquisition this month after buying laundry startup MyWash.


Housejoy is operational in 13 cities across the country and offers a slew of services from handymen to laundry to home beauty services. It has raised a total of Rs 180 crore in funding from Amazon, Matrix Partners, Vertex Ventures, Qualcomm and Ru-Net Technology Partners.

"Wellness is a high-gross merchandise value and high-margin category for us, and conservatively, there are 5,00,000 subscribers who are ready to be tapped in this market," said Saran Chatterjee, CEO at Housejoy.

Orobind has more than 1,000 customers in Bengaluru alone with around 135 active personal trainers on the platform. The transaction, which is an all-equity deal, will give Housejoy the trainers of Orobind, the customer base and the technology with the entire team. Orobind was founded by IIT-Roorkee engineering graduates Satya Vyas and Shubhanshu Srivastava, who have work experience at Schlumberger and Snapdeal, respectively.