LocalOye plans to add 1,000 more merchants

Amid the melee of Indian eCommerce companies selling products from pins to computers, LocalOye.com is bringing in a silent revolution by providing a local services market place via mobile app.

LocalOye, a two-year-old start-up owned by Imma Web which began its operations in Mumbai, announced its decision to start its operations in Bengaluru and shift headquarters and development centre to the city.

In an interaction with Deccan Herald, LocalOye CEO Aditya Rao said the local services market is going for an exponential growth and the company is delivering mobile-based solutions to customers.

“We want to bring in a human element in our service delivery with customised approach. Here customers and merchants are attached via apps and they can hold live chat to find the service which serves their purpose,” he said.

In Mumbai, LocalOye managed to serve more than one lakh customers and 3,000 merchants, with an average wallet size of Rs 7,000 spread across 250 categories.

“We want to increase our service to 320 categories and add another 1,000 merchants by the end of this year. Local Oye selects its merchants based on 45 parameters so that customers will get premium service,” said Rao.

Once the requirements have been posted by the apps, the vendors are notified and user details like budget, location, timing, etc. are sent to them. After the service provider accepts the lead, LocalOye connects both the vendor and customer.

“We are focused on our growth and are aiming at significantly scaling up our operations in Bengaluru. The company wants to focus on health, home, events, beauty, hospitality and education. We intend to be the go-to platform to provide solutions for customers which is highly interactive and data-driven,” he said.

​LocalOye raised its initial seed round of funding from angel investors including ​Haresh Chawla (ex Group CEO Network 18) and Sachin Bhatia (co-founder, MakeMyTrip.com). It  raised $5 million from Tiger Global and Lightspeed India in April 2015.