Delhi Startup CarryMen Turns Shopping Help Into an On-Demand Service

A Delhi startup is turning one of the simplest forms of help into a bookable service. CarryMen lets customers hire trained assistants to carry shopping bags, manage luggage and provide practical support while navigating crowded markets. The company recently went viral after finance creator Bhanu Pathak highlighted the concept on social media.

Launched in April, CarryMen initially focused on Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar market, offering male and female assistants for bookings of up to four hours. According to Mint, pricing starts at ₹79 for 30 minutes and ₹149 for an hour. The service has since been promoted across areas including Sarojini Nagar, Khan Market, Sadar Bazaar, Old Delhi and ITO, with bookings handled through WhatsApp.

The idea came from founders Ritu Kandari Srivastava and Kanishka Malhotra, both mothers of young children. They said the concept emerged after struggling to handle prams and multiple shopping bags during a trip to Lajpat Nagar while also noticing an elderly shopper having similar difficulty. That experience led them to explore whether shoppers could simply pay for reliable assistance when needed.

CarryMen now describes itself more broadly as an on-demand human assistance platform, with services spanning shopping, railway and airport visits, hospitals, personal and family assistance, weddings and events. The company says its assistants are selected, trained and background-verified, positioning the service as more structured than informally hiring someone at a marketplace.

The model has also sparked debate online. Some users see practical value for parents, senior citizens and people carrying heavy purchases, while others have questioned worker pay, dignity and whether inexpensive labour is being repackaged as a startup service. For CarryMen, the larger opportunity—and challenge—is proving that convenience and dignified employment can scale together as the company expands beyond its original Delhi shopping use case.