Lachy Groom, one of the most scrutinized solo investors in Silicon Valley, made a 20-minute pitch back a promising Indian startup called Pronto. The young founder, Anjali Sardana, was convinced and received a $20 million injection as part of an extension to its Series B round. This not only valued the company at $200 million but doubled its valuation in a mere two months.

Pronto's ambition is nothing short of building the world’s largest platform for organizing domestic labor, starting with India's vast and largely unstructured workforce. The key ingredient? According to Groom, it's the founder herself – Sardana was said to have 'operated at a level I haven’t seen elsewhere in this space.'

India is seeing a surge of on-demand home services startups, as consumers increasingly opt for instant help with everyday tasks. Pronto has been growing rapidly, from 18,000 bookings a day to over 26,000 within just over a month. However, this growth brings challenges, particularly in predicting demand and managing capacity.

The market is intensifying, with major players like Snabbit and Urban Company's InstaHelp also vying for the growing $15 billion to $18 billion industry by 2030, as estimated by Bank of America. Pronto, despite trailing its larger rivals, has shown impressive momentum in scaling up.