Daybreak - As investors celebrate Urban Company's IPO, its workers are labelled 'potential risk'

Episode Date: September 11, 2025

Urban Company’s IPO is off to a roaring start. Retail investors snapped up shares within an hour of the issue opening. By the second day, demand was more than five times the supply, and in the grey market, the stock was already trading nearly Rs.40 above its official price band. The company has reported its first-ever annual profit, rolled out new services like Insta Help and Revamp, and is raising nearly Rs.1900 crore to fuel its next phase of growth.On paper, it’s a remarkable turnaround story. But there’s another side you won’t find in most headlines. Urban Company has built its business on the backs of gig workers. A majority of them are women who have been asking for things as basic as employment benefits, fair policies, and a share in the company’s success.In this special episode, we revisit host Snigdha Sharma's earlier conversation with two such workers whose voices cut through the numbers.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too. It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Raman Ganeshan, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they manage to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing and extensive post-production. Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording.

Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get alert, as soon as we release our first video. episode, please follow intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcast or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. Two months ago, as urban company was preparing for its big market debut, some of its workers decided to make a bold move of their own. They launched a campaign called Worker Car IPO. It was led by the Gig and Platform Service Workers Union, which is India's first women-led union for gig workers.

Now, their demands were pretty straightforward, but far-reaching. They wanted a voice. Through a joint management council, where elected worker representatives could have a say in everything from working conditions to how algorithms distribute jobs. And they also wanted a stake, which is the right to buy company shares, ideally at discounted rates, so the workers who keep the platform running could also share its growth. To push their case forward, they even launched a campaign called hashtag Dry June, which was to urge customers and gig workers to boycott the services of urban company.

Now, fast forward to today, and urban company has finally gone public, and the IPO has been a resounding success. On opening day, retail investors grabbed their quota of shares within an. hour. By the second day, which is on Thursday, demand had already outstripped supply by more than five times. In the grey market too, which is the unofficial space where shares are traded before listing, urban company's stock was selling at nearly 40 rupees above its official price band, which was of 98 to 103 rupees. Now, the company itself has had quite the blockbuster year. It rolled out Insta Help, which is a 15-minute quote-unquote made bookings.

service and revamp, a home makeover product. It also turned profitable for the first time posting a net profit of over 200 crore rupees in the financial year 2025, which, by the way, is a sharp turnaround from a loss of more than 90 crore rupees the year before. So, with this IPO, urban company aims to raise nearly 1900 crore rupees. News reports are talking about how it plans to funnel all this money into strengthening its tech, cloud services, paying office leases and marketing, of course. So, as you can see, on paper, everything actually looks quite perfect.

But here is what most headlines are missing. For all the talks about profits, growth and investor excitement, there is still silence on the workers. In its IPO filings, urban company actually listed its reliance on gig workers not as a strength, but as a potential risk. The company continues to call them independent contractors, not employees, which is a classification that shields the company from providing benefits like social security, insurance or pensions to its workers. Unions have challenged this time and again. But so far, most complaints

have gone nowhere. Another potential risk that the company sees is the code on social security of 2020. If it comes into play fully, which, by the way, is a very way, is a lot of. only a matter of time, urban company says it will be forced to classify its workers as employees. So it told its investors that the move would bring huge costs, social security contributions, compliance requirements and maybe even lawsuits. Which brings us back to why this moment matters. Not long ago, I spoke to two of urban companies women gig workers, Selvie and Nisha. Delvey is an active member of the Women's Gig Workers Union and has worked with Urban Company for a while.

Both of them told me about what it's really like behind all the glossy numbers. The pressures of algorithms, the lack of safety nets and what it feels like to be the backbone of a company but be treated like a disposable part of that very system. Now that urban company has gone public and its financial story is being celebrated, their voices matter more than ever before. Because the real story is not just about how well the IPO did in the market. It is about whether the people who make this company possible will ever share that success. So today, I thought it is important that we revisit that conversation.

But before that, I gave Selvi a quick call to ask her how she felt about this IPO. She didn't have a lot of time, but here is what she said to me. Yeah, what do you think of urban company going public now? Amar for what you're doing? You're in the share market in the money? So, what's the whole thing in this company? So, so it's because I'm IPO share in the kit. It's not a lot of workers about me think.

Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Ken. I'm your host, Nygdash Sharma, and I don't chase the news cycle. Instead, every day of the week, my colleague Rachel Vargis and I will bring you one business story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Friday, the 12th of September. Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to meet someone very special. She came down to the Kent Studio in Bangalore. And her name is Selvi. She is a 37-year-old beautician who works for urban company, Asia's largest at-home services marketplace.

And when we say at-home services, we meet. cleaning, painting, plumbing, repair work, and of course, beauty treatments such as waxing, pedicure, manicures, facials, etc. Selvi is among the millions of women in India who power the country's booming gig economy. She started working with urban company five years ago. I lost my two wheeler also in COVID. Financially I lost. So I used to travel by bus carrying so many. things that time we are not in our auto scene I used to travel by bus get on by bus and I need to walk like one and a half kilometer to kilometer inside the customer's house

because the bus will stop only in main road so I used to go ITPL I used to go card go I used to go home so many difficult place I am times I gone through all this sometimes I feel like I quit this job and I work somewhere else. But again, I thought I need to, again, I have to invest somewhere. If I'm working, again I have to invest. It is not possible. Okay, carry on, carry on.

A decade ago, though, when platforms like urban company came into the picture, things were very different. They were seen as a beacon of hope for thousands of women like Selvi. It was a way for them to gain financial independence and support their families. To get a better picture of what exactly. it was like back then, I spoke to Anna Elias, a PhD scholar at Erasmus University in the Netherlands, whose study is all about the impact that digital platforms have on livelihoods in the informal sector. She specifically studied women gig workers who are partners at urban company.

The initial period of platform work or the gig economy was very revolutionary, it was transformative. And the sentiment resonated with. gig workers across platforms and across sectors. So it was very lucrative for the workers in terms of earnings that is both income and the incentives and also the regularity in the flow of work. So it gave them access to newer markets and newer customer base and for many women, the gig economy offered a much needed opportunity and urban company needs to be highlighted here because it's one of the few digital platforms where we see a significant number of women workers particularly in their beauty and wellness service category.

What Anna is saying was specially evident during the pandemic. Actually, first, before I used to work in Paler, when the first lockdown, everything was shut down. We would not getting salary also in Parlor because they also got lost. Like, uh, Kui B, Dukkan, Ne, or... Kula, the poor shadow. So completely. So I thought that time,

before also, some of my friends was working in a urban company. When they also was working, they said it is really good for home service. We are not getting any jobs. So I thought I will join in here and go to some, because at least we need to run our family.

We need to go. First, my husband was like, no, you cannot go for home service. How safe. he started fighting with me. I said, see, you cannot judge by anything like that. It is many women also working in there. We will see how it is.

Even now, urban company is the largest employer of women gig workers in the country. More than a third of its workforce is actually made up of women. For this episode, I also went to meet another woman gig worker who had no bookings for the day, so she very graciously invited me to her little two-room. rented apartment that she shares with her brother and sister-in-law in Bangalore's H-SR layout area. Okay, Nisha, thank you so much for giving us time. What language are you comfortable in Hindi, English, Nepali? Hindi?

You sure? Nephally, can't. Yeah, Nepal. Does it? No, I'm in Nepal. It's not, it's all. It's after. It's, it's.

Do you name, where's, how years, how many, how many years have been in Bangladesh? I'm Nepal, in Bangalore in Bangal in Bangladesh, I've been 7, 8 years I've been. And the urban company, when have come to? I've worked

I've worked since September, just September, just September, in 1,000 year. Nisha is originally from Nepal, but she moved to Banglor about 7 to 8 years ago.

She's been working with Urban Company for over a year now. It was very good it was. It's not too car didn't, It's not so big. It was right.

I was at the first time I'm at one lakh, $1,000, $25,000, like, $20,000,000, this is he came to. Nisha told me how it was great back then when she started working. For the first few months, she was making over a lack every month. But things went downhill pretty quickly for her. Bistair, slowly, blistery, bistair, it's, pretty downed. I mean, I've said, but 50, but it's not. Nisha says that now she can.

can barely make $50,000 a month. And please note that out of this $50,000, she has to also buy all the products that she uses for the services herself plus the fuel, travel cost and the taxes. Naturally, she's been unable to send money back home to her parents for a few months now. And she's not alone. Over the last couple of years, women gig workers, especially ones from urban company who usually work in silos,

have been raising their voices and coming together against the appalling work conditions that they're faced with. Among the many things that these women are protesting against, there is the one-sided, unjust rating system of the app that makes female gig workers entirely dependent on ratings by customers. Nisha says that sometimes she feels like crying in Mrs. Horme, but she doesn't have a choice. She has to be nice to every customer,

even if they are unfair or unjust to her because she needs them to give her a five-star rating. Rune to me, I like to say, I'm going to last, too, I'm going to do, but what do you have to. And rating for the rating for me, please, my service is really, and I'd like, and I, let me, rating this way, do, and so, say, and, you know, man, five, five, pay, rating, or not, if, if, if, if, they, they,

one, one, one, two, percent, got it, and then, and then, And then there's also the issue of arbitrary blocking of accounts. Partners are getting blocked even if they have good ratings just because they cancel more than thrice or if they have a lower acceptance rate. Could be anything, Selby tells me. Every reason they are blocking, ma'am, if you're not owning your calendar Saturday, Sunday, I will block you.

If you're not doing scanning. Jitna product you're purchasing. You're buying the product in company only. That we have to scan after the service. There's also something called product rating that Selvi is talking about here. Basically, these workers have to purchase all the products that they use for their services from urban company via the app. And it is one of the main parameters that they are rated on by the company.

So the more they buy, the higher their rating. But among the biggest concerns of all is the issue of safety. While the company boasts of one of the largest female workforces, it doesn't really have a solid practical mechanism in place for these women to protect themselves from harassment and abuse. Because think about it. They're literally having to go to a random stranger's house to work. They have no idea who is inside and what kind of people they might be till they're actually inside the house. Selvi and Nisha both told me many horror stories about this.

We are not getting anything from your side. You're getting a lot of business from our end. But we are not getting anything from your end. You don't have a courtesy to speak to us all until now. Abbe, our company, any one person back to talk to, there's any call, or anything there. We're not going to company's property,

nothing but we're just, we're just, we're just, we're just, we're just. Our business, an national company, not being a national company, not. And you're not considering us as, Employee, partners bolte. So in today's episode,

we will try and understand why Selvi and thousands like her are so angry with the very company that was once a source of freedom for them. One of the biggest USPs of urban companies, especially for its women partners, was the kind of flexibility that it gave them. We're talking about women with families and kids here,

so this was something that really made a difference. Unfortunately, women in our societies, we know especially from a lower income household, face various societal and structural barriers to join the formal workforce, right? So when platforms like urban company came in, they sort of bridge this gap by offering flexibility, as you mentioned. So women could choose their working hours. Workers in general, especially women, could choose their working hours. which allowed them to balance the family responsibilities,

which is often a cultural expectation in Indian households. But I would say flexibility is one of the most misunderstood, misinterpreted concepts within gig economy. So I asked Selvi to explain to me how exactly she takes up a job through the urban company app. Job, we will not take the company only automatically assign the job. So you can't choose? No, before we had two years back, we have an option to choose.

Howt kilometers, what product is, how to do you can plan. It was that flexibility. Flexi, they told us to join when they joined us. That is how they said. You have a family, you can work only 10 hours, you can spend time with your family, etc., etc. Nisha too echoed Selvie's thoughts about AutoSign. She pointed out how they have no choice, no matter. how far the job is, how much it is worth, rain or shine, they just have to go.

The other option is to cancel the booking, but that comes with a heavy price. You see, urban company workers are rated on four parameters. One, customer rating, two, number of cancellations, three, weekend hours, and four product score. And based on these ratings, the app ranks the workers as gold, silver and bronze. Selvi showed me her app to explain how it works. Compulsory Saturday Sunday have to work 13 hours. And if you don't work? You'll get blocked.

This is what you'll get blocked. So silver targets rating? I was in gold partner. They put me in silver. Yeah. So gold partner means what? Gold partner means C. No profile pause for 30 days, personal loan of 30,000,

medical insurance. Oh, so medical insurance is only for gold partners. Yes, yes. That is what I mean, I want to show that to you directly. So that way people are thinking we are telling lies and everything, etc., etc. No? Let me did I see. This is what you'll get. Bronze, silver, gold. Okay. So you have to be. I was in, I was in a silver and gold partner last. March. Yeah. After that they put me in because due to rating.

I will show with that. This is how it works. Okay. So silver is 4.7 plus rating. Three or less cancellations. 70 weekend hours. And 70 product score. Yes.

Silver is 4.8 plus. 2 or less cancellations, 70 weekend hours, 80 product score. and gold is 4.9. One or less cancellation. Yes. 80 weakeners, 8.0. Yes.

Gold, meanwhile, told me that it is almost impossible for most people, including her, to be a gold partner. Gold in the cancellation, but only only time. And calendar marking, it's 90% up to make. Product score, but 90% up to make me. And rating, you're $4.95. Right, the right thing, matthine right? And Nicole will suckens. It's not.

And that's the carol, I, I really shouldn't goalt in, I don't know, I don't know. Now, the thing is that the customer rating system on the app is entirely one-sided. It is skewed heavily

towards the customers, which leaves the women partners entirely at their mercy. Another aspect of the rating system that urban companies women partners have a special gripe with is the product score,

which I had explained earlier in the episode. The workers basically have to purchase all the products that they use for their services from urban company via the app. And it is one of the main parameters that they are rated on by the company. So the more they buy, the higher their rating. And the company keeps a tab on when a partner's product should be getting over. They used the scanning mechanism for this. Nisha showed it to me. So you have to buy the products, then you have to scan this, and then you have to upload it on the app. Then what happens? Product score goes up.

And they know, if I've got a vaccine facial, if I'm not scanned it, then they're not used, then there's product used, it's, it's wrong. Oh, so it's buying is not enough. You have to show that you have, you have used it. So if she forgets to scan it, then immediately, it's not been used. So if she forgets to scan it, the company will assume that the product has not been used. Nisha had a few instances where she forgot to scan and her product score fell. Selvi, meanwhile, explained to me how auto-assigned also makes it worse for them by forcing them to buy more products. You will order three pedicure kit, three facial kit, three...

cleanup kit, waxing. In these four things, in one day, three pedicure dee there. His business strategy, you're actually tell you, three pedicure in a day. So next day, you're in auto. And next day, pedicure are.

So what you'll use? Again, you have to order. Minimum order is 1,500. So why does such a problematic system even exist in the first place? Anna had something to say about this. So, ratings and review mechanisms were introduced and implemented by platforms with the aim of maintaining customer satisfaction and service quality. So by design, it is a tool to keep a check on the workers.

And the algorithms behind these ratings, they lack transparency. They're prone to various inaccuracies. or as I mentioned earlier, they are simply beyond the skills of a lay person to comprehend. And there are some things beyond the workers' control which can affect this ratings. It's true that to a certain extent the rating system is exploitative. And to maintain these high ratings, the workers are compelled, you know, to accept certain unreasonable demands from the... customers such as working over time or providing these additional services without compensation

or even tolerating inappropriate behaviors from the customer. So for I think for women it adds another layer of vulnerability because many enter the economy thinking of the flexibility it offers but the pressure to maintain these high ratings takes away their flexibility. So they leave their apps open, their calendars open throughout the day, all days of the week. So it becomes a tool of exploitation on certain levels, especially considering that these workers often lack the resources or the negotiating power to challenge these systems. To give you an example of how unfair it can be, Nisha, whom you've been hearing so far,

suffered an accident on Diwali day this year while driving her two-wheeler. A drunk man came in the way, she swerved and fell, and the bike fell on top of her, injuring her angle. Selvi showed me pictures before I met Nisha and it was gruesome. This three days after, okay? I'll see it. First accident, I'll show you.

fresh, how do you? Oh. Scootie from get, and then what happened? And then what happened? Company blocked because he already job had gone,

four, four jobs and sat back and sat. What is she will do? She will go work like this? The day of the accident and the following day, Nisha had taken an off on her app calendar.

But she had five bookings the day after that. So she called a representative from urban company and gave her all the proof because she did not want to cancel her bookings. It would affect her ratings. But the woman told her to cancel anyway and also pointed out that her weakened hours were falling. When Nisha expressed her fear about getting blocked on the app, the woman told her that she would unblock her when she got better. She did unblock her ID for some time, but later her ID was blocked again. They asked her for a meeting and all the medical proof again and finally unblocked her ID. But Nisha lost multiple

days of work because of this. And even prior to this, she was blocked for almost the whole of October because she had two debts in her family and had to cancel some of her bookings. In the next segment, we will talk about the lack of basic safety that women gig workers face on the job. Stay tuned. This segment contains descriptions of harassment and violence against women, so please consider this a trigger warning. When we go to the service, only we provide service for the women. So, as you may have guessed, what often happens is that the husbands or male partners book on behalf of women.

And women partners of urban company have no way of knowing who the service is for till they are actually inside the client's house. I went to the service. I did the service to her. She made me to underarms to bring me to me to make me to do the underarms vaccine for his father for me. Not only for me, whoever goes, she's forcing them to do their underarms. Finally, she made me to do, I refuse to do.

finally she forced me. Otherwise, I will give rating like that only. And everything depends on rating for you. Yeah. Everything is about rating only, no? The customer doesn't know what is exactly happening. You will think if the customer gives you, many other customer also will think,

oh, she might have did this only. But the customer doesn't know what I faced. I'm also human, no? While urban company finally did apologize to Selvie, she later found out thanks to her own network, work that the same customer who harassed her was also assigned to another woman partner again. She pointed out to me the imbalance in how their lives depend entirely on customer ratings, but customers, on the other hand, can get away with almost anything.

Why you're not blocking that customer? When our rating is wronged. You, you're going to block us. When customers are wrong, we're going to say, how we're going to say? Selvey then went on to narrate another even-fewan. horrific incident about an urban company woman partner who was from the northeast. The customer had an issue with her service and an argument ensued. The husband of the client hit her, snatched her phone away and locked her in the washroom

for close to an hour. My CEO is saying we are giving safety, trust everything. When this happens, what is the safety you have given to her that girl? Nisha too told me about an incident of being Eve teased by a group of men because she had been auto-assigned to a shady area of the city. They recognized her uniform and kept asking her to give them a massage. I asked Anna about these incidents and here is what she had to say. These platforms undertake enormous background verifications and checks for the worker.

Whereas the customers are not subjected to the same scrutiny, right? So I think at its core, there is a neglect. The neglect stems from the fact that gig workers, particularly women workers, they are not considered as a central stakeholders in the gig economy. So it is a system that prioritizes, it is profit-oriented and of course the priority is customer retention and expanding the customer base. But yeah, for things to change, I think it's important that the gig workers are recognized and are considered as key stakeholders within this whole system. And more importantly, I would say it's important to develop emergency and safety tools that are practical and reliable. And along with the trainings that are provided to the workers related to their products or the practices, the tools. there should be like considerable time spent on training them on how to use these safety features.

So like, you know, some simulations on how to respond when there is an unsafe situation. Like, you know, so very practical, very like a role play based training needs to be provided to the workers, especially women, to keep them safe from such situations. So you see, it comes as no wonder now that Selvi and Nisha and more and more women like them are becoming vocal about the issues that they face. Selvi is in fact now the leader of the gig in Platform Services Workers Union here in Bangalore. She joined it last year and has been using WhatsApp groups extensively to organize women gig workers in the city. We want a law for the gig workers. that's what I go. That's my weapon

that my side's the girl company to talk a weapon is. In June this year, the Karnataka Assembly introduced the draft of the Karnataka

platform-based gig workers Social Security and Welfare Bill. This made Karnataka the second Indian state to initiate such a move. The first was Rajasthan. Also, I think it's important to tell you that we asked

Urban Company a bunch of questions for this episode, but so far we have not received any response from them. Meanwhile, I asked Selvi if she has a message for anyone from Urban Company if they're listening to this. She said that the leadership should meet workers at all branches and hubs and ask them about their issues. She says workers want the company to do well. They don't want to fight and that they would feel proud to tell others one day that their CEO actually made an effort to come and talk to them and try to solve their problems. That is why we are still working in our company.

That is the reason we are working in your company. But at the same time, you have to understand from our side also what, especially women for women's problem is, that you're in a lot of people who are doing. What are the problem? This is about to us. That we're quite quixing, so we can't wishy, I can say,

that our company CEO said, we've got a problem for solution given, he will give just that's

just that. You're block why you're doing? This is a woman can't make a lot

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