A Decade of Transforming Everyday Living: Celebrating Urban Company’s IPO

Urban Company (UC) listed its shares publicly on Sep 17, 2025. Accel partnered with the company in January 2015 even before the company was registered - in short, there was no company. Just 3 founders (Abhiraj, Varun and Raghav) and a pitch deck.

 I wonder why we keep going back to the start to tell a story? As if you open a door and it all unravels. But there are doors behind doors and each door leads to many doors…

 In the second half of 2014, Accel was working on a thesis on new-age services companies or 2.0 version of the classified business (like Justdial, Zomato back in the days, etc.) The consensus view was that there was a big graveyard of online service delivery businesses and if something hasn’t worked in the US or anywhere else in the world, it won’t work in India either. This made me even more determined.

 During that research, I requested a dear friend and ex-founder Pratik Poddar (now VC at Nexus) to connect me to the Urban Company team which he duly did and that’s how it all began.

 There were about 20+ companies in the space. We liked the Urban team the most –they were articulate and clear. They didn’t have the baggage of the past: web and SEO to win but seemed intent on creating mobile first consumer experience as India was transforming from web to mobile. Abhiraj and team flew down to Accel office in Bangalore. The room was divided. I remember leaving my wife, Shivpriya and our 3-year-old son, Anay and coming to the office on both Saturday and Sunday, restless and confused, to wrestle with the decision. By Monday, Subrata and I were an emphatic ,“Let’s do it!” We committed a sacred $750K, my first ever investment.

 2015 was a crazy year in terms of financing activity in India and UC raised capital three times in the first year of its existence. All promise. We were still small. Tiny. With capital came responsibility of being good stewards of capital and Abhiraj never spent a dollar more than he should have despite all the money in the bank. He was thoughtful, methodical, and executed to the T.

 A lot of investors and friends doubted: they would talk about the limited addressable market, weak business model, and challenging unit economics. I took it all very personally, because there was some truth in the criticism, and it hit hard. Later, I would realize that businesses are not static but evolve like living organisms. They move, they change, they adapt. The most important indicator is the Team and the leadership that accelerate or limit their evolution and determine the ability to win key moments. Knowing this, one takes criticism better than before.

 For instance, in 2017, we were a few million dollars in revenue, growing well. UC expanded to 105 service categories, connecting consumers with service providers. The entire organization was organized around winning each of these categories. However, UC didn’t control the customer experience as they passed the ‘lead’ to a service professional to fulfill. This bothered the team. Oneday, Abhiraj and the team decided to change UC into a transaction business that fulfilled consumer need to ensure delivery and service quality. Overnight, 105 services were reduced to five. A decision was made and implemented. This was a critical inflection.

 The business started humming and we were wheels up in a quarter’s time. Controlling the experience meant better NPS, repeats and eventual compounding in the business. The energy was palpable when one visited the office. There’s no better feeling for an investor when you can feel the energy and vibe. A small number of committed people shaping away the future. A lot can be gathered, felt outside of board rooms!

We were always able to hire and retain the best talent as we were fully committed on the long-term, creating wealth through ESOPs. I remember connecting Sripad Panyam (who’s now at Dezerv) to Varun Khaitan for the Product head role, fully expecting that Sripad would not join. I had tried him in the past and was convinced that he was not going to leave his current job. Later, when I visited UC office, lo and behold I see Sripad. He had just confirmed. UC always won these key moments. I would be remiss to not mention Mukund who gave a big fillip to the team. He brought in both strategic and operational excellence. After seeing him, I realized how a great talent addition can be a force multiplier to the business. UC is full of such people who have been force multipliers.

 There were obvious bumps along the way but the team always appeared in control. They gave experiments a good chance to run and shut it down quickly if it wasn’t working out.

It takes a village to be successful. All investors - Elevation, Bessemer, Vy/Dharna, Steadview, Tiger, and the later investors Dragoneer, Wellington, and Prosus– contributed in their own ways. The company is much loved and adored. With the ringing of the bell UC will transition to URBANCO.

Congratulations to everyone at UC, alums, all investors and to Accel! One of its kind in the world.