In just 11 months, 23-year-old Anjali Sardana has built Pronto from a single hub in Gurugram, where she slept on the floor to ensure service reliability, into a $100 million company revolutionizing how urban India accesses domestic help.
The household-help app has raised $25 million in a Series B round led by Epiq Capital, catapulting its valuation to nine figures and underscoring the surging demand for on-demand domestic services among India’s rapidly expanding middle class.
The Problem Pronto Solves
Imagine a hectic weekday morning: a young working couple realizes their house help hasn’t shown up. The sink is piled high, the clock is ticking, and there’s no backup plan.
Pronto’s solution is simple but powerful: a few taps on a smartphone, and vetted help arrives at the door. The platform turns what was once an informal, word-of-mouth market into an organized, tech-enabled service.
From Sleeping on Floors to 18,000 Daily Bookings
Sardana’s journey, which she candidly shared on X, is the stuff of startup legend.
“Nine months ago we had one hub in Sector 56, Gurgaon. We were sleeping on the floor to ensure customers who had made a booking received reliable service. We were doing about 170 bookings per day,” she wrote.
Today, the numbers tell a story of explosive growth:
| Metric | Current Figure |
|---|---|
| Daily Bookings | Over 18,000 |
| Cities Present | 10 (from a single Gurugram hub) |
| Active Professionals (Last Month) | More than 4,500 |
| Primary Markets | New Delhi region (~50%), Bengaluru (~20%) |
| Weekly Booking Growth (Last 3 Months) | ~20% |
Despite the meteoric rise, Sardana remains grounded. “We know most of the work is still ahead of us,” she noted.
Why This, Why Now?
The timing for Pronto’s model is impeccable. As India’s middle class grows and dual-income households become the norm, convenience has shifted from a luxury to a necessity. Long work hours and packed schedules are fueling demand for dependable, app-based household support.
Sardana believes this demand is just beginning. In fact, the company is now “deeply supply constrained” , with bookings growing about 20% week-on-week over the past three months.
The Supply Side: Building a Formalized Gig Economy
If demand is strong, supply is the real battleground. A significant portion of the new $25 million capital will be deployed toward expanding the worker base through referral rewards and technology tools.
On average, workers on Pronto complete seven gigs per day. The platform offers baseline pay for logged-in hours plus per-booking incentives.
According to Sardana, a worker putting in 20 days a month can earn upwards of Rs 25,000 on average , with additional upside through bonuses and referrals. In a country where average monthly income stands at around Rs 32,000 (according to job website Shine), this earning potential is notable—especially in a sector that has long operated informally and without structure.
“If you acquire 20% additional supply this week, you have 20% more people who refer others into the pipeline,” Sardana explained, outlining the compounding nature of network growth.
Ownership and Competition
Sardana owns 40% of the company , while Glade Brook is the largest external shareholder with about 15%. Pronto operates in an increasingly competitive space, facing fast-growing rival Snabbit and listed player Urban Co. However, Sardana remains focused on execution rather than rivalry.
For now, profitability is not the priority. “Profitability is a conscious choice at each point in time,” she said, making it clear that growth remains the focus.
Beyond the Valuation: A Larger Shift
Pronto’s story is about more than funding headlines and triple-digit valuations. It represents the formalisation of domestic work through technology . By introducing structured pay, incentives, and operational scale, the startup is reshaping how household services are delivered and perceived in urban India.
From sleeping on office floors to building a nine-figure company in under a year, Sardana’s journey mirrors a broader shift: youthful ambition meeting digital infrastructure, backed by a middle class willing to pay for convenience.
And if growth continues at its current pace, this may just be the beginning of an even bigger success story.
