6. Housekeep

Founder: Avin Rabheru
Founded: January 2014
Website: www.housekeep.com

Housekeep’s inclusion in the Startups 100 2017 marks an astonishing fourth appearance in the prestigious annual index after ranking 81st in 2014, shooting up to 27th in 2015 and climbing to 26 last year.

This being its last appearance in the index – based on eligibility –Housekeep has cleaned up with its best ranking yet in sixth place.

Founded by Young Gun Avin Rabheru, a former venture capitalist (VC) with investments in over 40 high-growth companies, the on-demand home cleaning platform has demonstrated consistently stellar growth and a commitment to innovation throughout.

The platform delivers high-quality, vetted cleaners to time-poor professionals in London for £12.50 an hour, offering one-off, weekly or fortnightly visits. Of that fee, Housekeep takes a £4.00 commission, with the cleaner taking the rest. From just a handful of customers and two cleaners at launch, the company has grown to more than 20,000 customer accounts with 1,000 recurring subscription contracts.

Notably, Housekeep was also crowned Service Business of the Year at the 2016 Startups Awards; beating off stiff competition from Clearabee and Play Consulting.

Rabheru asserts that coming up with the idea for Housekeep wasn’t a “lightbulb moment as such” but a “carefully thought out piece of industry analysis and understanding of what type of company can be successful”.

Now, on the back of its continued success, the next 12 months will see Housekeep scale its service to more than 10,000 regular subscription customers and 1,000 cleaners.

Once its cracked the £1bn London market, the company has ambitions to sweep into new geographies – after all, there’s a world of homes out there to clean and Housekeep is just the company for the job.