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10-minute househelp startups & their crore-sized losses
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Latest financials reported by Snabbit and Urban Company on Friday point to heavy cash burn in the race to deliver household services within 10 minutes. This and more in today’s ETtech Top 5.
Also in the letter:
■ RapidCanvas raises $29 million
■ Rogue AI agents breach Indian firms
■ Family offices bet on Indian AI
Urban Company cofounder and CEO Abhiraj Singh Bahl
Urban Company on Friday reported a net loss of Rs 182 crore in the September quarter, widening from Rs 59 crore a year earlier and Rs 92 crore in the June quarter, as the home services platform stepped up investments in its quick services business, InstaHelp.
Growth: Revenue from operations rose 41% on-year to Rs 537 crore in the second quarter of FY27. Net transaction value (NTV) grew 39% on-year to Rs 1,432 crore, while orders delivered increased 103% on-year to 15.1 million. Annual transacting users rose 35% to nearly 10 million.
Financials: The company’s consolidated adjusted Ebidta (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) loss stood at Rs 144 crore, reflecting an investment of Rs 174 crore in InstaHelp. Excluding InstaHelp, adjusted Ebitda increased 213% on-year to Rs 30 crore.
QIP: Urban Company's board has approved a proposal to raise Rs 2,500 crore through a qualified institutional placement (QIP), according to a stock exchange filing.
Snabbit founder and CEO Aayush Agarwal
Instant househelp startup Snabbit reported operating revenues of Rs 12.2 crore and a net loss of Rs 168 crore in FY26, according to financial statements sourced from the Registrar of Companies (RoC).
Cost details: The Bengaluru-based company’s total expenses stood at Rs 195 crore during the year. Expert service costs (paid to its professionals) of Rs 63.1 crore were its biggest expense, followed by marketing expenses of Rs 48.7 crore, and employee benefits of Rs 46 crore.
Revenue mix: The operating revenue included Rs 1.4 crore from sale of uniforms to its professionals. Snabbit also reported an interest income of Rs 14.8 crore. The company reported an Ebitda loss of Rs 181.5 crore in FY26.
FounderSpeaks: "Did we spend significantly more than we earned? Absolutely. Building a category from scratch requires investment. In customer adoption, workforce training, technology, infrastructure, and geographic expansion. We made those investments deliberately, and we'd make them again," he said in the post.
Funding: In April, Snabbit raised $56 million (around Rs 529 crore) in a round co-led by Susquehanna Venture Capital, Unicorn Growth Fund and Bertelsmann India Investments. The round valued the startup at $350 million, almost double its $180 million valuation in October.
(L-R) Ather Energy cofounders Swapnil Jain and Tarun Mehta
Electric two-wheeler maker Ather Energy's wholly owned subsidiary Ather Insurance has received regulatory approval to distribute and service insurance policies, as the company looks to diversify revenues and generate recurring income from its existing customer base.
Regulatory approval: The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) granted the subsidiary a certificate of registration on October 15 to act as a composite corporate agent, Ather Energy said in a stock exchange filing on Thursday. The registration covers life, general, and health insurance. The approval is for insurance distribution and servicing, rather than underwriting policies.
Market position: Ather ranked third in India's electric two-wheeler market in September, with 30,479 registrations and a 14.71% share, according to Vahan data. TVS Motor led with 26.06%, followed by Bajaj Auto at 23.36%. Ola Electric had a 6.49% share.
Financials: For FY25, Ather reported revenue from operations of Rs 2,255 crore, up about 29% from Rs 1,753.8 crore a year earlier. The company’s net loss narrowed to Rs 812.3 crore from Rs 1,059.7 crore. Scooter sales rose 42% to 155,394 units from 109,577 in FY24. Non-vehicle sales accounted for 12% of revenues in FY25, compared with 10% a year earlier.
(L-R) RapidCanvas cofounders Rahul Pangam and Uttam Phalnikar
Artificial intelligence (AI) startup RapidCanvas has raised $29 million in a round led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India to expand its US sales team and engineering operations, cofounder and chief executive Rahul Pangam told us.
Investors: Hitachi Ventures and existing investors Accel, Peak XV Partners, Valley Capital Partners, and Titanium Ventures also participated in the round, taking the startup’s total funding to $52.5 million. Pangam declined to disclose the final valuation.
Business model: The Hyderabad and Austin-based company combines AI agents with engineers to build and operate custom applications for enterprises, including for data preparation, coding, and analysis. Manufacturing and industrial businesses form its largest customer segment, while the US is its main market, Pangam said.
Margin expansion: RapidCanvas’ annual recurring revenue grew eightfold over six quarters, Pangam noted, adding that its gross margins are in the high-60% range. The startup aims to lift these into the 80% range through greater automation, enabling existing teams to deliver more.
AI models under testing broke into Indian organisations' live systems and read confidential records undetected, India's cybersecurity agency CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) said.
Unauthorised access: AI model providers had voluntarily disclosed that their agents "exceeded the authorisation of their assigned tasks" during test runs and accessed Indian firms' data, including business records. None of the affected Indian entities detected the intrusions themselves.
AI-powered attacks: In a second set of cases, the government agency's own investigations found attackers deliberately using freely available AI tools to probe Indian systems and break in for financial gain, with such tools deployed widely across infrastructure in multiple countries.
Global concern: The disclosure brings India into a growing global debate over how AI companies test models with advanced hacking abilities. OpenAI said in July its models went rogue during testing and breached a startup, while Anthropic has disclosed at least four instances of its AI models' hacking external systems so far this year.
The artificial intelligence boom has cemented US and Chinese tech dominance and created fortunes across north Asia’s chip supply chain. Now, India’s billionaire family offices and wealthy investors are betting on homegrown startups to gain ground in the global AI race.
Key investors: Billionaire tech founder Azim Premji’s family office, WhatsApp Inc.’s chief executive officer Kunal Shah’s QED Innovation Labs, and Manipal Group Chairman Ranjan Pai’s family office are among the investors leading the push into such startups.
Funding gap: Private investment in India’s AI economy totalled more than $15 billion between 2013 and 2025, according to Stanford University’s AI Index Report, compared with investments of $757 billion in the US and nearly $132 billion in China’s AI ecosystem.
Also in the letter:
■ RapidCanvas raises $29 million
■ Rogue AI agents breach Indian firms
■ Family offices bet on Indian AI
Urban Company Q2 Results: Loss widens to Rs 182 crore; revenue jumps 41% YoY
Urban Company on Friday reported a net loss of Rs 182 crore in the September quarter, widening from Rs 59 crore a year earlier and Rs 92 crore in the June quarter, as the home services platform stepped up investments in its quick services business, InstaHelp.
Growth: Revenue from operations rose 41% on-year to Rs 537 crore in the second quarter of FY27. Net transaction value (NTV) grew 39% on-year to Rs 1,432 crore, while orders delivered increased 103% on-year to 15.1 million. Annual transacting users rose 35% to nearly 10 million.
Financials: The company’s consolidated adjusted Ebidta (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) loss stood at Rs 144 crore, reflecting an investment of Rs 174 crore in InstaHelp. Excluding InstaHelp, adjusted Ebitda increased 213% on-year to Rs 30 crore.
QIP: Urban Company's board has approved a proposal to raise Rs 2,500 crore through a qualified institutional placement (QIP), according to a stock exchange filing.
Snabbit reports net loss of Rs 168 crore, revenue of Rs 12 crore
Instant househelp startup Snabbit reported operating revenues of Rs 12.2 crore and a net loss of Rs 168 crore in FY26, according to financial statements sourced from the Registrar of Companies (RoC).
Cost details: The Bengaluru-based company’s total expenses stood at Rs 195 crore during the year. Expert service costs (paid to its professionals) of Rs 63.1 crore were its biggest expense, followed by marketing expenses of Rs 48.7 crore, and employee benefits of Rs 46 crore.
Revenue mix: The operating revenue included Rs 1.4 crore from sale of uniforms to its professionals. Snabbit also reported an interest income of Rs 14.8 crore. The company reported an Ebitda loss of Rs 181.5 crore in FY26.
FounderSpeaks: "Did we spend significantly more than we earned? Absolutely. Building a category from scratch requires investment. In customer adoption, workforce training, technology, infrastructure, and geographic expansion. We made those investments deliberately, and we'd make them again," he said in the post.
Funding: In April, Snabbit raised $56 million (around Rs 529 crore) in a round co-led by Susquehanna Venture Capital, Unicorn Growth Fund and Bertelsmann India Investments. The round valued the startup at $350 million, almost double its $180 million valuation in October.
Ather Energy gets Irdai licence to distribute, service insurance policies
Electric two-wheeler maker Ather Energy's wholly owned subsidiary Ather Insurance has received regulatory approval to distribute and service insurance policies, as the company looks to diversify revenues and generate recurring income from its existing customer base.
Regulatory approval: The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) granted the subsidiary a certificate of registration on October 15 to act as a composite corporate agent, Ather Energy said in a stock exchange filing on Thursday. The registration covers life, general, and health insurance. The approval is for insurance distribution and servicing, rather than underwriting policies.
Market position: Ather ranked third in India's electric two-wheeler market in September, with 30,479 registrations and a 14.71% share, according to Vahan data. TVS Motor led with 26.06%, followed by Bajaj Auto at 23.36%. Ola Electric had a 6.49% share.
Financials: For FY25, Ather reported revenue from operations of Rs 2,255 crore, up about 29% from Rs 1,753.8 crore a year earlier. The company’s net loss narrowed to Rs 812.3 crore from Rs 1,059.7 crore. Scooter sales rose 42% to 155,394 units from 109,577 in FY24. Non-vehicle sales accounted for 12% of revenues in FY25, compared with 10% a year earlier.
Agentic AI startup RapidCanvas raises $29 million from Vertex Ventures, others
Artificial intelligence (AI) startup RapidCanvas has raised $29 million in a round led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India to expand its US sales team and engineering operations, cofounder and chief executive Rahul Pangam told us.
Investors: Hitachi Ventures and existing investors Accel, Peak XV Partners, Valley Capital Partners, and Titanium Ventures also participated in the round, taking the startup’s total funding to $52.5 million. Pangam declined to disclose the final valuation.
Business model: The Hyderabad and Austin-based company combines AI agents with engineers to build and operate custom applications for enterprises, including for data preparation, coding, and analysis. Manufacturing and industrial businesses form its largest customer segment, while the US is its main market, Pangam said.
Margin expansion: RapidCanvas’ annual recurring revenue grew eightfold over six quarters, Pangam noted, adding that its gross margins are in the high-60% range. The startup aims to lift these into the 80% range through greater automation, enabling existing teams to deliver more.
Government reveals rogue AI agents broke into Indian firms' live systems
AI models under testing broke into Indian organisations' live systems and read confidential records undetected, India's cybersecurity agency CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) said.
Unauthorised access: AI model providers had voluntarily disclosed that their agents "exceeded the authorisation of their assigned tasks" during test runs and accessed Indian firms' data, including business records. None of the affected Indian entities detected the intrusions themselves.
AI-powered attacks: In a second set of cases, the government agency's own investigations found attackers deliberately using freely available AI tools to probe Indian systems and break in for financial gain, with such tools deployed widely across infrastructure in multiple countries.
Global concern: The disclosure brings India into a growing global debate over how AI companies test models with advanced hacking abilities. OpenAI said in July its models went rogue during testing and breached a startup, while Anthropic has disclosed at least four instances of its AI models' hacking external systems so far this year.
India’s family offices bet on homegrown AI firms to gain ground
The artificial intelligence boom has cemented US and Chinese tech dominance and created fortunes across north Asia’s chip supply chain. Now, India’s billionaire family offices and wealthy investors are betting on homegrown startups to gain ground in the global AI race.
Key investors: Billionaire tech founder Azim Premji’s family office, WhatsApp Inc.’s chief executive officer Kunal Shah’s QED Innovation Labs, and Manipal Group Chairman Ranjan Pai’s family office are among the investors leading the push into such startups.
Funding gap: Private investment in India’s AI economy totalled more than $15 billion between 2013 and 2025, according to Stanford University’s AI Index Report, compared with investments of $757 billion in the US and nearly $132 billion in China’s AI ecosystem.
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