Tech firms tap services for reach, products for profit

Urban Co, MyGate, HealthifyMe, Paytm rely on service-linked products to drive repeat use

- Sakshi Sadashiv

These new-age technology companies are building large service-driven user bases and monetizing them through higher-margin hardware and product lines.

(REUTERS)

Quick commerce made Swiggy and Zomato indispensable, while electric vehicles gave Ola a clear purpose. Now, the next wave of Indian tech startups—Urban Company, MyGate, HealthifyMe, Paytm, and others—are adopting a similar template: providing services for reach, but selling products to make money.

But, without the depth of legacy players, the platforms are starting small, relying on the still-evolving service-attach model to drive stickiness and bring repeat usage, indirectly strengthening business economics.

Home-services platform Urban Company, which made a stellar stock-market debut on 17 September, is seeing measurable traction for its home-solutions brand Native, which contributed about ₹75 crore, or roughly 11%, to its revenue of ₹380 crore for the September quarter. The products business has expanded fourfold from ₹29 crore in 2023-24 to ₹116 crore in 2024-25.