Pronto doubles valuation to $200m after securing $20m Series B from Lachy Groom

Indian startup Pronto has secured a $20 million investment from Silicon Valley solo investor Lachy Groom, a deal that extends the company's Series B round and values the firm at $200 million. The agreement was reached following a 20-minute pitch in February, a timeline that underscores the speed at which the deal was finalised between the Bengaluru-based firm and the investor. This funding represents a significant jump in valuation, effectively doubling the company's worth from just over two months prior.

The investment was facilitated by Paul Hudson, founder of Glade Brook Capital, who connected Groom with Pronto's 24-year-old founder, Anjali Sardana, during her visit to San Francisco earlier this year. Hudson, who has previously backed Indian quick-commerce startup Zepto alongside Groom, arranged the introduction that led to the rapid agreement. Groom, co-founder of Physical Intelligence, described the work required to organise India's vast and largely unstructured domestic workforce as genuinely hard, noting that most attempts in adjacent categories have struggled with operational discipline.

Sardana, who founded Pronto in 2025 after working at Bain Capital and venture firm 8VC, highlighted the unique nature of Groom's investment strategy. She noted that the investor heavily indexes the founder, accounting for 95 per cent of his decision-making process before considering business scale. Sardana told TechCrunch that if Groom loves the founder, he will invest, with the remaining 5 per cent dependent on the scale and potential of the business.

Pronto connects households with workers for on-demand home services, such as cleaning, and is currently scaling rapidly to meet growing demand. The startup's daily bookings have risen from 18,000 to 26,000 in just over a month, driven by a focus on turning occasional demand into frequent, habit-driven usage. Despite this growth, the company faces significant supply constraints, having expanded its network of service workers to 6,500 from 1,440 in January, yet demand continues to outpace capacity.

In terms of market position, Pronto currently holds approximately a 20 per cent share of India's instant home services category. This trails rivals Snabbit and Urban Company's InstaHelp, which each hold around 40 per cent of the market. The category is characterised by rapid adoption among urban households, heavy capital inflows, and aggressive pricing strategies to attract first-time users, with industry analysts expecting the sector to remain burn-heavy for the next two to three years.

Looking ahead, a recent Bank of America note estimates the Indian instant home services market could reach between $15 billion and $18 billion by the end of the decade. Pronto aims to capitalise on this opportunity to become the world's largest platform for domestic labour, starting with India's vast workforce. However, the path to dominance requires overcoming the challenge of forecasting and capacity management as the startup continues to scale its operations.