Urban Company currently sells water purifiers and smart locks under the Native brand.
ET had first reported in October 2025 about the company exploring its foray in this space.
With this Urban Company will join a list of new-age firms to sell air conditioners – a market that is currently dominated by legacy brands such as Samsung, Daikin, Godrej and Voltas.
“Water purifiers and smart locks remain Native’s priority, and we expect to add at most one new category over time. Any new category must pass four tests: ownership should be service-heavy, so that the cost and hassle of servicing over the product’s life matter as much as the purchase price; there should be a clear, unsolved consumer problem that better design and engineering can fix; the profit pool should be large, with a premium segment where we can earn attractive margins; and the product must connect to the platform, so it can be bought, installed, serviced and repaired through the Urban Company app by our own partners,” the company said in its shareholders letter.
Residential air conditioning it said is the category it believe fits this framework best.
“It is a large market in which we already service millions of units a year, giving us a detailed, first-hand view of where today’s products fall short, and we have been investing in R&D to address those gaps,” it added.
Besides Urban Company, Urban Ladder cofounder Ashish Goel’s new startup, Optimist, which is developing ACs for Indian conditions, has raised $12 million in a round led by Accel and Arkam Ventures. Helium Smart Air, founded in 2025, has raised $2 million from India Quotient.
With the government providing incentives for local manufacturing, which lowers the entry barriers, startups are increasingly eyeing a piece of this growing market that has been long dominated by large companies.
Urban Company’s Native segment reported Rs 105 crore in operating revenue for the July-September quarter, compared to Rs 75 crore in the same period last year.
