Home services marketplace Housejoy has raised Rs 150 crore (~$22.4 million) in a series B round of funding led by Amazon, with participation from new Vertex Ventures, Ru-Net Technology Partners and Qualcomm. Existing investor Matrix Partners also participated in the round. Note that, in June, the company raised $4 million in a Series A round of funding from Matrix Partners. The startup will use the funds to improve its technology and categories, for strategic acquisitions, partnerships and hiring. It will also look to expand to another 10 cities and have 50,000 service providers on the platform. As of now the company claims to have over 10,000 service providers across 11 cities. Housejoy currently lists services like plumbing, electrical, home cleaning, beauty, computer repair, fitness, drivers, pest control, laundry, carpentry, appliances and painting. Users can pick and book the service online, while the payments are made directly to the worker after the work is done. The company provides a 7-day work re-do guarantee in case of problems, and also offers insurance of up to Rs 10,000 for damage caused by provider error. The services are available over the web and it’s Android app. BetterPlace tie up: Earlier this month, Housejoy tied up with background verification firm BetterPlace for address verification, identification and criminal/court checks of HouseJoy’s service providers. The companies had implemented this partnership in Bangalore initially, and eventually expanded to the other 10 cities. CEO appointment: In September, Housejoy appointed Saran Chatterjee as its CEO. Chatterjee, who resigned after being Flipkart’s VP…
