When Rashmi Manchanda, an IT professional, was transferred from Noida to Bengaluru to assume a senior management role, the biggest challenge was relocating. “Relocation is a big challenge... it is not just about relocating your stuff, but about relocating your lifestyle. I had decorated my house brick by brick and I am emotionally attached to my things,” said Manchanda, who found it hard to zero in on a professional, transparent moving service.
It is customers like Manchanda that packing and moving start-up ShiftKarado aims to tap. Founded by Atul Mithal, Sahil Mithal, Aulina Mithal Sood and Ashish Mullick in Gurugram, the start-up is backed by parent Star Worldwide Group, which is established in the international relocation business with clients like consulates and multi-national companies.
“While the movers and packers segment is huge, it remains largely unorganised... We are an app based-service. So, it is easy for the customers to book the service and get transparent pricing and service,” Aulina, one of its co-founders, said.
ShiftKarado has been investing in emerging technologies to take its services up a notch. For instance, it uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to help customers hasten the turnaround time from enquiry to placing their final order. A customer can get online quotations for various services within minutes and can track the whole relocation process. “It is the technological aspects of our company, along with international exposure, that set us apart. We have strict quality control as we do not outsource to any vendor. This keeps us ahead,” Aulina added.
Currently, the company is relocating about 70-75 customers per month and aims to reach the 100 relocations a month milestone, and a monthly turnover of `50 crore, by financial year 2021. It has offices in Bengaluru, New Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Greater Noida, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Chandigarh, Mohali, Jaipur, and Kolkata.
Besides individual customers, Aulina also sees major growth coming from corporate clients. “There is a growing demand for these services from the corporate segment. Since most of our services are tech based and transparent, it helps in saving costs as inflated bills are no longer an issue,” she pointed out.