Spickify acquired by Rocket Internet-backed rival Helpling

Singapore

SPICKIFY - a local cleaning services platform launched last July that lets users find, arrange and pay for a helper on-demand - says it has been acquired by Rocket Internet-backed competitor Helpling.

This marks the second buyout this year of a Singapore startup by Rocket Internet, after the German incubator's Foodpanda in February bought Food Runner (the food delivery unit of Singapore's DealGuru) along with five other rival sites across Asia, to form its Global Online Takeaway Group.

The acquisition amount, while not disclosed as per Rocket Internet's policy of not sharing financial details, is "considerable and an amount we're happy with", Hoe Yeen Teck, Spickify's co-founder and now country manager of Helpling, told BT.

Founded as a community project to match low-income residents with cleaning jobs in nearby private apartments, Spickify had amassed some 200 recurring customers and 150 cleaners in about a year, said Mr Hoe.

It charged customers a flat hourly rate of S$18 on weekdays and S$20 on weekends, and would take a S$3-4 cut per hour. According to Mr Hoe, Spickify had about 30 bookings daily on weekdays and up to 60 bookings daily on weekends.

It also became the first service in Singapore to provide liability insurance of up to S$1 million, where customers might be compensated in the event of an incident or damage to property during the cleaning session.

Following the acquisition, Spickify will be rebranded as Helpling, which charges a flat hourly fee of S$20 and takes a S$4 cut, BT has learnt. Helpling will now also offer the same insurance benefits to customers, and is exploring additional benefits to support its cleaning partners.

Since its launch here in early February, Helpling said its number of bookings has been doubling weekly. It will launch a mobile app later this year.

To date, Helpling has raised US$17 million in venture capital since its founding in January 2014. Spickify, on the other hand, had not raised any capital prior to the acquisition.

"We were rejected for funding thrice by ACE (Action Community for Entrepreneurship) and were only given generic reasons for our ineligibility in letters, which I plan to frame up some day . . . to show that that isn't always the end-game," said Mr Hoe.

Added Benedikt Franke, co-founder of Helpling: "Spickify is the local hero in kicking off the first wave of this business model and will be able to provide valuable insights on the needs of the local community."

This acquisition is believed to have established Helpling as the largest home-cleaning-on-demand platform in Singapore today.