In a move that’s catching the startup world by surprise, Pronto — a fast-growing home services startup — is preparing to move its legal base from Delaware, USA,
In a move that’s catching the startup world by surprise, Pronto — a fast-growing home services startup — is preparing to move its legal base from Delaware, USA, back to India. What makes this especially interesting is the timing. Most startups only consider this kind of reverse flip when they’ve matured and are on the verge of going public. Pronto is flipping back just months after launching.
Founded in late 2024 by Anjali Sardana, Pronto offers 10-minute home services — from cleaning to laundry to household help — currently operating only in India. Despite its young age, it has already raised $2 million in seed funding from Bain Capital Ventures. It’s also reportedly in advanced talks to raise another $10–12 million from global firms like General Catalyst, Glade Brook, and Untitled VC.
So why the sudden flip? Let’s break it down.
The decision to register in the U.S. wasn’t random. Founder Anjali Sardana studied and worked in the U.S. as an investor, so she was already familiar with the Delaware startup ecosystem. Incorporating there made it easier to raise initial venture capital and gave the startup global flexibility early on.
Delaware is a popular choice for startups because of its investor-friendly legal system and tax advantages. For global VCs, especially those based in the U.S., a Delaware C-Corp is often seen as a standard and safe bet. This made it easier for Pronto to secure its first round of funding quickly and build momentum.
Here’s the twist. While many Indian startups like Meesho, Groww, and Razorpay started as U.S.-based entities and later shifted back to India — often right before IPO or after years of operations — Pronto is flipping early. The reason is strategic: India is its only market.
Unlike SaaS or cross-border tech companies, Pronto has no overseas business. Its entire user base, team, operations, and long-term focus are centered in India. Running a business that’s legally based in the U.S. but operationally dependent on India can create inefficiencies — in taxation, compliance, hiring, and even fundraising from Indian funds.
There’s also the financial angle. Reverse flipping isn’t cheap when done late. PhonePe reportedly paid over ₹8,000 crore in taxes to flip its domicile. Groww had to pay more than ₹1,300 crore. Meesho too faced a heavy tax bill. Flipping early allows Pronto to avoid these massive exit tax liabilities down the line.
So rather than wait until it’s legally or financially complicated, Pronto is making the move now — while it’s still small and nimble.
More Indian startups are considering redomiciling to India as the local ecosystem matures. In the past, startups would go to the U.S. for easier access to global capital and a more IPO-friendly regulatory environment. But today, the Indian startup scene is evolving rapidly — with maturing public markets, increasing domestic VC participation, and regulatory improvements that make India a more startup-friendly base.
Reverse flipping — or changing the legal domicile of a company back to India — is increasingly seen as a smart long-term play, especially for companies with entirely Indian operations and ambitions to eventually go public in the Indian markets.
It’s not an easy decision though. Flipping requires legal restructuring, tax planning, and investor consent. It can also raise complex issues related to ESOPs, founder equity, and corporate governance. That’s why doing it early — like Pronto — can actually be a huge advantage.
Pronto isn’t just another domestic help app. It’s trying to reimagine how domestic labor works in urban India. Unlike typical gig economy models that pay workers per task or per hour, Pronto follows a shift-based model with guaranteed minimum pay.
The company claims that its staff — known internally as “Pros” — earn between ₹22,000 and ₹26,000 a month. That’s significantly more than the ₹9,000 average for unorganized domestic workers in cities like Delhi and Gurugram. Workers are trained in-house, background-verified, and managed with clear schedules and support.
It also takes worker safety and reliability seriously. All workers go through police verification, court record checks, and get access to a customer support system designed to protect both users and workers. Unlike gig platforms that rely on freelancers or part-timers, Pronto aims to create steady, reliable employment in an industry that has long been informal and unpredictable.
This worker-first approach isn’t just ethical — it’s strategic. Retention is higher, service quality is more consistent, and customers are more likely to rebook.
Since launching in late 2024, Pronto has seen strong early adoption. Within just a few weeks of going live in Gurugram, it had over 1,000 users, with nearly 70% booking repeat services within two weeks. That kind of stickiness is rare in on-demand platforms, and it speaks to how underserved the Indian home services market still is.
The company plans to open 10 more local hubs across Gurugram within the next 90 days. It’s also setting up operations in Mumbai and Bengaluru, with hiring underway for more than 700 workers and a corporate team of over 50 staff members.
Its long-term vision includes adding recurring service plans, rolling out health insurance for workers, and developing fintech tools to help its workforce access credit, insurance, and flexible pay.
Investors seem bullish on the space, despite how challenging the home-services sector has been for others. Bain Capital Ventures led the seed round and is staying closely involved. The next round, reportedly around $10 to $12 million, is likely to include global funds like General Catalyst, Glade Brook Capital, and Untitled VC.
This continued support even during a reverse flip shows growing investor comfort with startups that are structurally India-focused. It also reflects a broader trend — global investors are more willing to back Indian-domiciled companies now than they were just a few years ago.
By flipping early, Pronto is sending a clear signal: it’s betting big on India, not just as a market but as a home base for the business. It also wants to build for the long term — with an eye on regulatory clarity, better tax efficiency, and future readiness for a public listing on Indian stock exchanges.
If Pronto can continue growing, maintain service quality, and keep its worker-first model sustainable at scale, it could emerge as a leading name in both quick services and ethical employment.
In a space long plagued by informality, unreliability, and underpaid labor, Pronto is trying to rewrite the rules. And flipping back to India might just be its smartest move yet.
