Profitability and growth should go hand in hand: Sulekha CEO Satya Prabhakar

Digital platform for local services Sulekha is betting equally on growth and profitability and claims to be growing its revenue 40 percent year on year even as the local services market is seeing the growth of aggressive new age companies such as Urbanclap.

"Both profitability and growth are equally important for us. And we are achieving them both. We are profitable and growing at the rate of 40 percent," Satya Prabhakar, founder and chief executive officer of Sulekha told Moneycontol in an interaction.

The company reported Rs 98 crore in revenue during the financial year 2014-15. Prabhakar declined to share the recent figures.

While home and lifestyle, education, entertainment, professional services, travel, transport, and events are the main categories for Sulekha, home and office constitute a major share of the business for the platform.

Sulekha boasts of four million business listings in the USD 100 billion local services market in India. The company has raised over USD 50 million till date and competes Olx, Quikr besides younger rivals such as Urbanclap and Housejoy.

Urban Clap was last reported to have raised USD 21 million in a series C funding led by Internet investment fund Vy Capital. Housejoy on the other hand last raised USD 23 million from RTP Ventures and Matrix Partners India among others.

Sulekha, however, differentiates itself from Urbanclap and Housejoy.

"Our business model is different from them, we believe that we are matchmaking platform. We match our customers' requirement with the services they need. New companies which offer service on demand on their platform majorly recruits and train them for services," said Prabhakar.