Quick-service apps compete to woo women workers away from the informal economy
The sight of domestic workers in pink, green, and purple uniforms is becoming common across Delhi NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. Rapidly expanding quickservice applications like Snabbit, Pronto, and Urban Company’s InstaHelp are formalising an unorganised workforce, wooing them with flexible shifts, fixed monthly payouts, and better earning opportunities.For many, the main draw is the monthly pay of around ₹40,000 for a full shift or ₹20,000 for part time. That, even at the lower end, is double of what they used to earn.
Behind the rapid growth and investor interest, another reality is emerging. These brands are not just building a new category. They are attempting to formalise an informal workforce largely comprising women workers.
Their long-term success will depend less on attracting customers and more on convincing women workers to join their workforce . But this also raises questions of safety, stability, and dignity of work.
Ride-hailing Reloaded
In many ways, this VC-fuelled expansion of quick-service apps resembles the early days of ride-hailing, where high payouts to drivers and discounts to riders secured the supply chain. A key difference is that these companies are offering fixed monthly pay for working a set number of days and hours per month, as opposed to commissions.
According to experts, the workers don’t have a fixed place of work, and no perks of a salaried employee. This fixed monthly payment is said to be an incentive to attract more women workers to these platforms. “Similar to ride-hailing, this sector is likely to move away from the fixed payment option as companies begin to focus on their unit economics,” an industry executive says.
ET reported in March, the three platforms – InstaHelp by Urban Company, Snabbit, and Pronto – have together spent almost $10–11 million in February this year, up from $7–8 million burned through in December 2025.
Pronto currently has a hybrid payment model. “We offer a guaranteed minimum pay for the signed-up hours in a shift. Additionally, we give workers incentives for the bookings they fulfil, which is a variable,” says a spokesperson.
As Anjana Karumathil, an academic who studies the gig economy closely, says, “These platforms are easily onboarding workers, especially women, because there is a guaranteed payment feature. Otherwise, the income of a domestic help depends on how many houses they are going to and how many hours they work.”
That makes scaling up directly proportional to the number of people they can add. As Rahul Taneja, partner at the venture capital firm Lightspeed, says, “The success of this kind of business hinges on how you can orchestrate the supply.”
This vulnerability was evident when a shortage of workers disrupted the workflow of these service providers. Several workers had gone home to vote during elections in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala, and for the harvest season in agrarian states.
That, Taneja says, highlights the need to incentivise workers further and build a labour pool to manage seasonal fluctuations.
Wooing Aplenty
Online marketplaces for finding domestic staff, like MyDidi.in and BookMyBai.com came up over a decade ago. But this time around, similar service-based companies are opting for an on-demand model instead of a booking business, which struggled to scale.
Recruiting and retaining workers remain crucial. “Fixed payouts act as strong magnets for gig workers in the beginning, but retention comes when there is stability,” says Karumathil.
Companies are trying. The emphasis seems to be on training workers and offering them security.
Take Snabbit, which has about 15,000 active workers re s , t rs on its platform, for example. “We started with 100 jobs last year and ended the year with 10,000. Today we are at 40,000 jobs daily,” says Aayush Agarwal, founder of Snabbit. The company offers a two-day training programme to their gig workers.
Similarly, Pronto has 6,500 professionals onboarded on its platform who undergo a three-day training programme. On the final day, these professionals are told about safety measures and protocols.
The Safety Push
Several women gig workers Brand Equity spoke with in Bengaluru said that they find working with such quick-service apps attractive due to high payouts and regular hours. However, they worry about their safety as they go to strangers’ houses, and when they wait for their next booking by the roadside.
A gig worker in Bengaluru, who works with Urban Company, says, “We stand near big apartment complexes since most orders come from there. We sometimes sit at a bus stop but it’s difficult when it’s raining or too sunny.”
Safety concerns, unfavourable working conditions, and societal challenges could slow down growth, according to experts. To address them, these companies have added an SOS button on the gig worker’s app.
UrbanCompany asks male customers to share a selfie for veri fication if no female family members are present. Some InstaHelp workers said they were provided with pepper sprays.
More may be needed. “An SOS button is not enough; perhaps a person should be appointed as a point of contact to bring in more accountability,” says Gayatri Nair, assistant professor of sociology, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi.
Until such concerns are fixed, the supply of women workers, who form the largest part of the informal sector, may remain the biggest constraint for these brands.
