New

Urban Company Lost Rs 447 On Every Instahelp Order In Q4 Fy26

Downloads:

Urban Company posted a loss for the third consecutive quarter since its listing and predicted more losses in the coming quarters due to continued investment in InstaHelp, the company’s quick housekeeping service, launched last year.

The Gurugram-based firm posted a net loss of Rs 161.2 crore in Q4 FY26, a multifold increase from the Rs 2.8 crore loss in the year-ago quarter. Sequentially, loss surged by more than 7.5x from Rs 21.3 crore.

The management attributed the deterioration in the bottom line to ballooning losses at InstaHelp, which reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of Rs 119 crore during the March quarter, while generating revenue of just Rs 9 crore.

InstaHelp weighing on Urban Company’s finances: The widening losses at InstaHelp were large enough to wipe out the Rs 22 crore profit generated by all other categories combined. Notably, Urban Company lost Rs 447 on each InstaHelp order in Q4 FY26.

In a shareholder letter, the company said that InstaHelp is still in an investment-heavy phase, and that it is “prioritising market expansion and customer adoption over near-term profitability” in this segment.

“For InstaHelp, we believe that right now, the most important thing, is market leadership, while making sure that loss per order keeps coming down, and over a period of time, losses come down,” said Abhiraj Singh Bhal, co-founder and CEO of Urban Company, during the post-earnings call.

However, he did not provide an exact timeline for the reversal. While InstaHelp is expected to remain loss-making for the foreseeable future, it raises concerns about the company’s own projection of attaining adjusted EBITDA breakeven by Q3 FY28, and clocking Rs 1,000 crore in adjusted EBITDA by FY31.

This comes at a time when Urban Company is facing fierce competition from quick home services startups such as Snabbit and Pronto — both of which have raised millions of dollars in recent months, eyeing rapid growth in user adoption and transaction volumes.

AI is rewriting Urban Company’s operations: Abhay Mathur, the firm’s chief financial officer, told analysts that more than 90% of the firm’s code is being generated by generative AI. The company has also deployed AI to handle 55% of all partner support queries, audit 100% of job-related images in real time, and run diagnostics in repair and appliance categories.

On the revenue side, AI is being used to send proactive service reminders. For instance, alerting users when a water purifier filter is due for replacement. AI is also being used to visualise interior spaces for Revamp, its home renovation offering. Mathur indicated this is an early-stage but called it “a space with a lot of potential.”

Core India consumer services biz driving growth: Urban Company’s India consumer services vertical, excluding InstaHelp, remains its biggest growth engine. Revenue from this vertical rose nearly 27% to Rs 288.5 crore in Q4 FY26, up from Rs 227.8 crore in the year-ago quarter. Sequentially, it rose over 9% from Rs 264.5 crore. Under this vertical, the company connects users with professionals for on-demand household needs, including beauty and wellness, repairs and maintenance, and cleaning.

Bahl attributed the growth in this business to a densification flywheel.

“Now, once you cross threshold density in a category in a micro-market, what ends up happening is that service professionals start getting utilized much better. Consequently, their earnings go up, and the cost to serve for the entire business comes down,” the Urban Company CEO said.

The company has also been rolling out UC Instant in a staggered manner in select cities and limited categories. Under this offering, users can book house repair services, beauticians and other services within a 30-60 minute window. This differs from the company’s InstaHelp offering, which lets users book house help for tasks such as cleaning, cooking prep, packing and unpacking in under 15 minutes.

How did Native perform? Revenue from the Native products segment rose to Rs 70.2 crore in Q4 FY26, compared to Rs 40 crore in Q4 FY25 and Rs 61.8 crore in Q3 FY25. The management claimed that Native is on a clear path to profitability, with the adjusted EBITDA loss narrowing to Rs 31 crore in FY26 from Rs 39 crore a year earlier.

“75% of customers whose devices have hit the first replacement cycle are renewing through UC — a strong signal of consumer stickiness that will only compound as the installed base grows,” Bahl said during the earnings call.

Key operational metrics of Urban Company — (Q4 FY26)

Annual transacting users: Rose to 8.42 million, compared to 6.78 million in Q4 FY25
Total orders: Jumped to 10.1 million in Q4 FY26 from 5.95 million a year earlier
Average order value: Declined to Rs 1,137, compared to Rs 1,364 in the year-ago quarter
Monthly active service professionals: Increased to 66,818 in Q4 FY26 from 46,842 in Q4 FY25.

Also Read:

The post Urban Company lost Rs 447 on every InstaHelp order in Q4 FY26 appeared first on MEDIANAMA.

Back to Listing

credit:

Urban Company Lost Rs 447 On Every Instahelp Order In Q4 Fy26

Popular Products