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Context is everything.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Evil, manipulative, unscrupulous. These are a few of the allegations levelled by the startup’s service partners. Its future depends on the choices it makes now.
Editor's note: If you go by the sheer number of reports, it would seem like the world is turning against Urban Company. Even the most loyal service partners, who worked hard over the years to make the company a household name, are up in arms. Seema Singh, who closed her own beauty parlour in 2017 to work with Urban Company, is one of them. The 35-year-old has become the face of the unrest. She is the first among four defendants named in a lawsuit—a copy of which has been reviewed by The Morning Context—filed by the home services company after protests in December. Singh has since left the platform. Gunjan Chaudhary, another beautician, who has been with Urban Company for over four years and had to relocate to Gurugram, is also protesting. So are hundreds of other partners in the spa and salon category of services. The company likes to portray the problem as being limited to the beauty vertical and the National Capital Region, but that is not true. A deep discontent is simmering among electricians, plumbers and other gig workers …
Evil, manipulative, unscrupulous. These are a few of the allegations levelled by the startup’s service partners. Its future depends on the choices it makes now.
Editor's note: If you go by the sheer number of reports, it would seem like the world is turning against Urban Company. Even the most loyal service partners, who worked hard over the years to make the company a household name, are up in arms. Seema Singh, who closed her own beauty parlour in 2017 to work with Urban Company, is one of them. The 35-year-old has become the face of the unrest. She is the first among four defendants named in a lawsuit—a copy of which has been reviewed by The Morning Context—filed by the home services company after protests in December. Singh has since left the platform. Gunjan Chaudhary, another beautician, who has been with Urban Company for over four years and had to relocate to Gurugram, is also protesting. So are hundreds of other partners in the spa and salon category of services. The company likes to portray the problem as being limited to the beauty vertical and the National Capital Region, but that is not true. A deep discontent is simmering among electricians, plumbers and other gig workers …
In less than two years, the instant delivery startup that puts quality above all else has attracted marquee VC investors, earning a valuation of $255 million. How far the niche bet will take it is anybody’s guess.
Pricing constraints and uncertain daily-use demand cast doubt on instant help’s ability to replicate quick commerce.
The quick-commerce startup weighs a valuation cut or finding alternative funding to stay afloat as investor appetite for loss-making businesses weakens.
In less than two years, the instant delivery startup that puts quality above all else has attracted marquee VC investors, earning a valuation of $255 million. How far the niche bet will take it is anybody’s guess.
Pricing constraints and uncertain daily-use demand cast doubt on instant help’s ability to replicate quick commerce.
The quick-commerce startup weighs a valuation cut or finding alternative funding to stay afloat as investor appetite for loss-making businesses weakens.
