less idle time, steadier income

Saturday’s first quarterly listing results show Urban Company’s partners’ average monthly active hours (excluding high-frequency vertical Insta Help workers) are up 51% (from 59 to 89) since FY22, driven by smarter matching and stronger local demand for services like pest control, beauty and grooming, and home repairs.

In the most mature neighborhoods, the top 5% of service partners spend 150 active hours per month; This is almost twice the platform average.

Urban Company counts active hours, including travel between appointments, as paid work, but excludes waiting time or simply being online.

Earnings, usage growth

He said service partners generate average monthly net revenue. ₹26,400 in FY25 after deductions, but earnings vary widely by category, geography and season. The company emphasized that the top 20% of partners earn approx. ₹40,600 per month, the top 5% earned roughly ₹49,000.

“As we concentrate micromarkets, our service professionals are spending less time waiting for jobs or traveling between jobs and more time in consumers’ homes,” Abhiraj Singh Bhal said during the Q2FY26 earnings call on Monday.

The company’s system, created to reduce idle time and increase employee utilization, typically has partners log in for 8-10 hours for about 3.5 hours of paid work, several workers told Mint. In busier pin codes, some report completing up to 150 hours of paid work per month.

Application-oriented changes

For some, this change has been very sharp. “Earlier, I would do two or three big jobs a day and log off,” said Neeraj, 35, a pest control expert in Gurugram. “Now the app keeps pushing shorter intervals. I’m only active for three or four hours, but I’m out all day. If I take a long break, the next booking may not come.”

Others describe a similar recalibration of time and control. “Earlier, I could plan my day around two big appointments and then take care of off-app clients as well,” said Rekha, 33, who offers home beauty salon services in Noida.

“I get the feeling that if I turn off the internet for a few hours, the next good booking won’t come in. So I stay online even when there’s no work. Now it feels like waiting is part of my job.”

For some, denser pin codes mean faster and more predictable income.

“I was working 140-150 paid hours a month just before the peak summer season. But that means using multiple pin codes and being on the app from morning till night. It’s not exactly a fixed shift but it works like a single shift,” said Sandeep, 31, who repairs air conditioners in Delhi.

Questions sent to the company on Monday remained unanswered by press time. The company’s shares fell 2 percent ₹148.60 per capita on BSE on Tuesday. Urban Company’s shares made a spectacular debut on the stock exchanges on September 17, listing at a premium of over 57% over the issue price on September 17. ₹103.

Both Neeraj and Sandeep said they sometimes transfer their mobile numbers to new customers to get direct repeat business and avoid paying the platform’s commission. Rekha, who handles maintenance for Urban Company, said she avoids sharing her number with the company’s customers, even though she serves some elderly, off-platform customers.

Algorithmic control

Abhivardhan, president of the Artificial Intelligence and Law Society of India, said the jump in active working hours shows that algorithmic infrastructure is being used to technocratically chain jobs by predicting availability and minimizing travel time between appointments.

Urban Company frames this technology infrastructure as a way to smooth employee income and reduce downtime. Its algorithms stack work orders more efficiently in short time periods by optimizing planning and matching using predictive modeling and dynamic routing. This is supported by the concentration of the micro market; partners and customers are packed into the same neighborhoods, reducing travel time and increasing both satisfaction and productivity.

But the same system also creates behavioral incentives that increasingly resemble shift-based work. “Flexibility is available but it depends on the mood of the app,” Rekha said.

This difference between billable hours and total time spent on the platform reflects what researchers call “availability inflation”; The more professionals available, the more likely they are to be ranked favorably by the algorithm and offered high-quality work.

“This is increasingly looking like a full-time profession. While Urban Company encourages flexibility, the underlying system rewards behavior that mimics traditional shift work,” said Sohom Banerjee, a senior research fellow at CUTS International who studies platform work policy.

The Gurugram-based company has also introduced features available in various categories, such as automatic acceptance of jobs, which makes scheduling even easier but reduces partner discretion.

Banerjee notes that the company’s trajectory shows “a classic productivity curve where technology increases workforce productivity by eliminating non-revenue-generating time.”

Urban Company’s data shows service providers can win ₹280– ₹380 per hour compared to ₹55– ₹80 in traditional settings such as salons or local workshops.

The company’s net loss increased ₹59.3 crore in September quarter ₹1.8 crore a year ago.

New bets in daily services

The bulk of its investment is plowed into Insta Help, a high-frequency cleaning vertical; occasional transition from planned services to spontaneous, daily demand. Unlike Urban Company’s traditional once-a-month services like plumbers, carpenters or wedding beauticians, Insta Help offers regular in-home help.

In just eight months, the service reached 4.7 lakh monthly orders but reported adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) loss. ₹44 crore in the quarter ended September.

Urban Company faces new competition from Snabbit and Pronto, both of which are pursuing the instant home help segment. Founded in 2024, Snabbit recently raised $30 million at a $180 million valuation and claims to deliver aid in 10 minutes via a 5,000-strong, female-led fleet across five cities. Pronto, also launching in 2024, received $14 million from General Catalyst and Glade Brook Capital in August to scale its “shift-based” model that promises reliability by directly controlling the labor supply chain.

But for now, Urban Company believes that density, frequency and machine-focused planning will give it an advantage as India’s home services market heats up.