India's version of SweepSouth helps its cleaners enter the middle class

Urban Company, an Indian tech platform that offers services ranging from haircuts to appliance maintenance and pest control, says seeing rapid growth by using a business model that ensures its partners can achieve middle-class living standards by using it alone.

Urban Company, started in 2014, is one of seven "Unicorns" that Prosus has a stake in India - or companies that have a value of above $1 billion (about R19 billion). It is looking to list publicly in coming years, having established a footprint in Singapore, the Middle East, as well as the world's most populous nation.

The group says it now as 50 000 "partners" on its platform, and takes 2 million orders per month, but while it accounts for 86% of the online services market in India, this is still only about 2% of total demand.