MyGate To Compete With Investor Urban Company With Smart Locks Foray
Urban Company is a shareholder in MyGate, having invested Rs 100 crore in November 2022 along with Acko.
Popular society visitor management app MyGate has launched a range of smart home locks and, in the process, will compete with investor Urban Company.
The company has launched a range of locks—Lock SE, Lock Plus and Lock Pro—priced premiumly between Rs 9,950 and Rs 23,990.
"The way we saw an opportunity at the gate of society, we see one at the door of the home," Abhishek Kumar, chief executive officer and co-founder at the Bengaluru-based company, told NDTV Profit.
"The door has not changed in the last many decades; we are still using keys to enter. We see an opportunity for disrupting the space," Kumar said.
Popular home services app Urban Company has also forayed into smart products in the past year. After launching water purifiers, Urban Company's second such product was also home locks, priced between Rs 7,499 and Rs 13,999. Moreover, Urban Company is a shareholder in MyGate, having invested Rs 100 crore in November 2022 along with Acko.
Responding on potential conflict there, Kumar said the approach had been discussed with Urban Company in the past. "Yes, there will be competing products. I don't think there is any strategic misalignment here. The focus of Urban Company when they invested was around home services and it continues to be a good partnership."
The company's core business—the subscription-based product for societies and the complimentary ad business—is now generating cash and that has enabled this expansion, Kumar said.
"Capital is not necessarily an issue for us. It's how we use it. We want to slowly become efficient in the business. For the first few months, some inefficiencies will be there. But the intent is to run this business in a very prudent and frugal way," Kumar said.
MyGate posted a revenue of just over Rs 100 crore and an adjusted Ebitda loss of Rs 20.4 crore.
The company is in "healthy financial shape," Kumar said, having been in a cash-neutral position for the past nine months, despite the investment in the new business. "Last three months of this current financial year have been PAT positive. This year, we are definitely looking at a 70%-80% year-on-year growth in revenue, with the new segment contributing 10%-15%," he said.
