Urban Company's revenue models will eventually evolve, says founder Abhiraj Bahl amid women workers' protests

Amid reports of several beauticians working with Urban Company going on strike against the home services marketplace, Abhiraj Bhal, Founder and CEO of the tech platform has said the startup's business/revenue models will eventually evolve to "create a win-win for society." 

Speaking at India Today Conclave 2021, Bhal stated that the company's service professionals earn significantly higher than the offline average.

"There has been some recent controversy around this… all of us here as a company are young, and we are evolving. We are willing to learn and have the humility to say that we are not perfect, and our models will evolve. All of us have to be given that opportunity to make mistakes and evolve these models so that eventually we become large companies which create win-win for society."  he added.

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Hundreds of female beauticians and spa workers working with Urban Company have been protesting against low wages, poor safety working conditions and high commissions collected by the home services platform from them. 

The striking women alleged that they are not given any kind of insurance from the company and are often assigned work at night. The workers also claim that they buy beauty products from the company at escalated prices against market rates.

The service professionals staged a protest on Friday at Urban Company's Gurugram office, threatening to a city-wide strike in the coming days.

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Meanwhile, Telangana-based Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT) has pledged support to aggrieved workers. Taking to Twitter, IFAT posted, "We are in full support and solidarity with Urban Company women workers."

Launched in 2014, Urban Company, formerly known as Urban Clap, provides access to home services like repairs, servicing of appliances and pest control by trained professionals through its platform.

Platform-based workers working with other companies such as Swiggy, Ola and Uber had also raised their voices earlier protesting against low wages, poor working conditions, and high work pressure.