TaskBob
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
TaskBob was a Mumbai-based on-demand home services startup founded in late 2014 by Aseem Khare, Abhiroop Medhekar, Ajay Bhatt and Amit Chahalia. The mobile app connected users with verified servicemen to repair household appliances — air conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators and computers — promising instant, high-quality service with transparent pricing. It raised $5.7 million in total and acquired Bengaluru rival Zepper in late 2015.
02 / TaskBob FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
TaskBob could not scale to profitability: home services was a low-margin business, controlling blue-collar labor was difficult, and competition came from far deeper-pocketed players such as Amazon, Quikr and UrbanClap. The company reportedly received only the first tranche — about half — of its $4.5 million Series A. On January 19, 2017 it shut down operations, having failed to build a scalable, profitable business in a tough external market.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Operations ended
TaskBob ended operations.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
CEO Aseem Khare emailed all customers announcing the shutdown, promising that orders already placed would still be processed.
- 02
The company published the contact list of all TaskBob-verified service professionals across categories (electricians, plumbers, carpenters, appliance repairmen, cleaners, drivers) on its app so users could reach them directly.
- 03
Its 10 remaining employees were given severance packages.