When massive floods hit Chennai in 2015, a huge number of people were displaced. Rahul Kanuganti and Gokulavasan who were volunteering to help those affected with floods saw that many were finding it extremely difficult to relocate to new houses – the biggest challenge was finding the right kind of house and the services they enjoyed in their previous homes.
This gave 20-year-olds Kanuganti and Gokulavasan the idea to build an information portal which would have all the necessary information one would need while relocating.
And there is a lot that comes with relocation apart from just moving luggage.
There are a number of services that offer relocation of luggage and personal belongings. But what about a new house? A new local gas connection, water facility, a house help?
That is the need gap that Kanuganti and Gokulavasan are looking to fill with Flytta.
The duo first started researching in terms of what kind of relocation happens in the country, what are the problems and need gaps.
What they found was that more than information, people needed services. “There is already a lot that comes with a new workplace. Corporates find it very difficult because they don’t have the time to look at every detail,” says Kanuganti.
In fact, when the duo presented their idea to T-Hub to apply for incubation, T-Hub was very amused by the idea, says Kanuganti. “They were quite amused with the idea, but said that it is a very tough problem to solve. However, we got into T-Hub and Nasscom’s incubation program,” he adds
The duo then began connecting with corporates and understanding the market. They went to gated communities and buildings in and around Gachibowli and Hitech city – Hyderabad’s IT corridor – and formed partnerships with them.
“There is a lot of criteria that comes with picking a house. For some security is important, for some, its access to schools and hospitals or even restaurants. So, we visited several residential communities, gave them technology where they can upload flats that are available for rent,” Kanuganti says.
Flytta offers services right from a new house to a gas connection, internet, DTH, water facility, milk vendors and local home services.
They have also partnered with packers-and-mover’s services like Leo packers and Movers and Professional Packers. They have four vendors on board.
How does Flytta work?
Flytta is an aggregator of services. When you are about to move cities, all you have to do is log onto GoFlytta, pick your area, browse through the available services and pick the ones you are looking for. Flytta lets you completely customize what services you need from them, depending on your budget.
Once you pick a house, Flytta has a relocation manager that personally helps the customer visit the house, check for required amenities and finalise a house. “We assist our customer till they feel settled in the new place. The idea is to replicate the same experience from the old destination to the new one,” says Kanuganti.
After going live in Janurary 2017, Flytta has done over 300 relocations to Hyderabad from different cities. And for the month of April, it has 385 relocations lined up already.
Every time a customer takes a house with Flytta’s help, they are charged 40-50% of the first month’s rent. For all the remaining services, Flytta earns by charging the vendor a commission of 10-15%.
Flytta also has another B2B business model where it is partnering with MNCs that relocate its employees. In this case, a fee is charged to the MNC for Flytta’s services. Once an HR identifies the person relocating, they connect that person to Flytta and Flytta’s account manager monitors the entire relocation process. While it has already partnered with four MNCs, it is in talks with many others for potential partnerships.
A few weeks ago, Flytta raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding from Hyderabad-based Corvus Ventures. It plans on using the current round of financing will to expand business operations, enhance technology and bolster marketing and development. The company is currently valued at Rs 10 crore.
With its base well-established in Hyderabad, the 12-member team is now expanding operations to Pune, Chennai and the NCR region over the next 3-6 months. The focus for the company will remain geographies that have the most IT and MNC crowd.
This article has been produced with inputs from T Hub as a part of a partner program.