Lachy Groom, one of the most followed individual investors in Silicon Valley, decided to back an Indian startup Soon just 20 minutes after his first meeting with its 24-year-old founder.
The meeting, which took place in February through a mutual connection, led Groom to invest $20 million in Pronto as an extension of its Series B round, valuing the startup at $200 million after the investment, double its value. appraisal just over two months beforeas TechCrunch had done previously reported. The deal was finalized within weeks, bringing in the solo investor as the Bengaluru-based startup expands to meet growing demand for on-demand home services in India.
Groom said he was drawn to Pronto’s ambition to build what it called the world’s largest platform for organizing domestic work, starting with India’s vast and largely unstructured workforce. “The underlying work is really hard, and most attempts in adjacent categories have struggled with operational discipline,” he said, adding that Pronto founder Anjali Sardana (pictured above) and her team were operating “at a level I haven’t seen anywhere else in this space.”
Before founding Pronto in 2025, Sardana worked at Bain Capital and venture firm 8VC, where he gained early exposure to high-growth startups and investments. The startup connects households with workers for everyday tasks such as cleaning and basic household services.
The presentation was arranged through Paul Hudson, founder of Glade Brook Capital, who connected Groom and Sardana during their trip to San Francisco earlier this year. Glade Brook has supported startups founded by Pronto, led by Sardana, and Physical intelligencewhere Groom is co-founder. Hudson and Groom have also backed the Indian fast commerce startup Zepto.
Sardana said Groom’s investment approach is heavily founder-driven. “He indexes two things. One is the founder, and that’s 95%. If you love the founder, then you’ll invest,” he told TechCrunch, adding that the rest comes down to the scale and potential of the business.
Groom’s bet comes as a clutch of startups in India compete to build instant home services platforms, a category that is seeing rapid adoption among urban households as more consumers turn to on-demand help with everyday tasks.
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The opportunity is significant. A recent Bank of America note, reviewed by TechCrunch, estimates that the instant home services market in India could grow into a $15-$18 billion industry by the end of the decade, as companies like Pronto, little fastand Urban Company InstaHelp compete for a share in this rapidly growing category.
Competition is intensifying, with strong capital inflows and aggressive pricing, particularly to attract new users. Bank of America estimates that Snabbit and Urban Company’s InstaHelp each account for about 40% of the market, while Pronto has about 20% share, even as it scales rapidly. The category is expected to remain heavily burned over the next two to three years.
Despite lagging behind larger rivals, Pronto has been climbing rapidly, going from around 18,000 bookings a day to 26,000 in just over a month. The startup is focused on driving repeat use, betting that converting occasional demand into habit-driven frequent use will be key to winning the category, as its top 10% of users account for around 40% of bookings.
This growth has also brought challenges, particularly in the development of supply. It has soon expanded its network of service workers to 6,500, up from 1,440 in January. But Sardana said demand continues to outstrip supply, making forecasting and capacity management key challenges as the startup grows.
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