How Nia.one Is Fixing India’s Gig Economics By Giving Workers A Home Away From Home

If the COVID pandemic had left a deep scar in the lives of migrant labourers, then six years on, the West Asian crisis inflicted fresh bruises with choked LPG supply pushing them homeward yet again into an uncertainty of livelihood. 

More than 600 Mn people, making up 42% of the Indian populace, returned home as of 2025, clocking a substantial increase from the 2011 census of 450 Mn gig workers employed overseas. As industries evolve, gig work is expected to account for a growing share of employment.

From plumbers to electricians and construction workers to assembly line operators – India’s blue-collar workforce stands at a staggering 450 Mn at home, while reports said nearly 70% of the 90 Mn jobs expected to be created by 2030 will be labour-intensive in nature. 

For this workforce to sustain the urban migration, the unit economics needs work in its favour. Workers should be able to save and send money back home after covering their basic living costs. This is where Nia.one comes in.

“Migrant workers typically move to cities with the goal of sending ₹8,000-10,000 back home each month. In their villages, they might earn ₹4,000-5,000 working on farms. So, migration is driven by the opportunity to earn an additional ₹3,000-4,000. That incremental income often doubles their savings. Our goal is to ensure that every worker on our platform can consistently send at least ₹8,000 home every month,” said Sachin Chhabra, who cofounded Nia with Lt Col Pushkar Raj in 2024. 

The startup offers accommodation, meals, and upskilling to migrant workers, setting up an infrastructure around India’s $455 Bn gig economy that’s expanding at 17% annually to bridge the gap between employer and workers. 

The role of the startup attained greater importance in the wake of the recent LPG crisis, with reverse-migration multiplying the need for affordable housing, access to clean food, and basic amenities. The work done by Nia had attracted Elevar Equity to pump $2.5 Mn of seed funding into the startup last year. It now aims at its Series A round later this year. 

Gaps That Leave Gigs In The Lurch

With a degree in economics, Chhabra served FMCG conglomerate Unilever for over 14 years until he forayed into entrepreneurship with Peel-Works, a digital-first distribution platform that aimed to bridge the gap between FMCG brands and kirana stores, in 2010.

After scaling the venture and raising close to ₹150 Cr, Chhabra signed an exit transaction in March 2020 when COVID lockdown disrupted operations, marking the end of a decade-long entrepreneurial journey. With the US-China trade war intensifying and the West turning to India with its China Plus One strategy, there was a major boost to the Indian economy. 

But Chhabra felt that both India’s economic ambitions and the fate of gigs in metro and Tier II cities were running into a hard wall.

“What went unnoticed was that there was hardly any living infrastructure available for blue-collar workers in our large cities. And there is a natural ceiling to this growth, be it in auto centres, manufacturing hubs, or large metros for gig and quick commerce. Because, if people can’t save, they will not migrate for work,” he argued.

Chhabbra went on to set up Nia.one with the capital of his deep insight into the gig economy and his experience in supply chain. Raj joined him with his nearly two decades of experience in military services. While the cause was noble, the founders were clear on the direction of their business — running a business focussed on profit and not as a charitable entity. 

Nia maps the migration corridors where industries dependent on blue-collar labour are clustered and sets up ‘studios’ equipped with the basic amenities. 

Studios Are Framing The Picture   

Nia operates close to 100 studios across four manufacturing and supply chain hubs in Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru, and Chennai. Each studio has four to six occupancy rooms with bunks and regular beds. There is RO water, laundry facilities with washing machines, a small dining area and increasingly, a grocery offering sourced directly from wholesale markets. 

The standard PG market demands one to three months of deposits upfront, then makes getting it back a negotiation. The onboarding philosophy at Nia is built around the ethos that it is difficult for migrant workers to trust urban settings. Nia charges no deposit. Workers pay advance rent for one month and move in. Rest food, grocery, insurance, upskilling — everything is optional.  

“The only thing obvious is that we don’t take deposits from them so that they don’t feel uncertain with us. But the market is otherwise very cruel. When any worker wants to go back home, it’s always a negotiation. So, for us, they just walk in and pay the advance rent,” Chhabbra said.

There is no compulsion to purchase meal subscriptions. Each meal costs ₹49, which Nia prepares by collaborating with cloud kitchens. Apart from that, Nia also shops groceries and essentials from wholesale markets and offers it to the workers at a lower price than the market. For instance, it sells Maggi at ₹9, instead of ₹10, shoes worth ₹900 at ₹300 from export surplus stock, feminine care products at 25% off from J&J and P&G. 

Giving a mathematical bifurcation, Chhabra said that a worker earning ₹15,000 pays roughly ₹1,500 in rent, ₹1,500 for meals and ₹2,000 for other expenses. That leaves ₹10,000 to send home. 

For security purposes, the startup mandates doing the KYC of workers. Nia collects Aadhaar details, confirms employment with a staffing company or offers to place the worker in one if they are not connected with any such agency. Unemployed individuals or those not willing to get registered in a staffing agency is a deal-breaker for Nia. “A person who is not working and doesn’t want to pick up a job in a reliable way is not welcome. We don’t want that character inside our premises.”

A significant portion of Nia’s operational staff are army veterans. Female studios — there are roughly 500 of these across Hosur and Sriperumbudur — have mandatory female wardens, CCTVs and SOS helplines. Theft prevention is treated as seriously as physical safety. 

Inside The Revenue Model 

Nia’s revenue model is a layered marketplace. On the worker side, it makes margin on rent, food, grocery and eventually financial products. On the enterprise side, it charges a 5% commission on staffing placements and collects rent from cloud kitchen operators who use Nia premises to serve both residents and nearby delivery platforms like Swiggy and Zomato. 

“When people stay with us, we make money on their stay. When they eat food from us, there’s a margin there. When we sell grocery items to them, though it is sold at a discount, we still make some money between our purchase price and what we sell it for. Everything is exactly like how you and I buy products — it’s just that they have a different consumption pattern,” Chhabra explained.

On the financials, the reticent chief executive of the startup stopped at saying that Nia had recorded an ARR of ₹30 Cr in the fiscal ended March 2026. The startup also connects workers to companies offering health and life insurance. It also has tie-ups with local hospitals for accident and trauma care if any member needs it. Nia also guarantees zero job-loss days. If a company ends a contract with a worker, Nia commits to placing them elsewhere within 24 hours. 

The startup has an offline and hyper-local approach. From pamphlets at tea vendors and cigarette stalls to merchandisers at bus stops — Nia informs workers about its existence in the most traditional way. “WhatsApp and all such things do not work so much because they don’t have trust in what they see digitally. The catchment area is well defined in this case. So it’s a traditional way of acquiring them.”

The company is also building Rafiki — an AI agent designed to act as a personal financial advisor for the migrant workers, recommending better-paying jobs, flagging spending optimisation opportunities and pushing recommendations through WhatsApp or messages. The company will push the execution of this product after raising its Series A funding later this year.

The Bengaluru-based startup plans to add 500,000 members across approximately 3,000 centres — a 50-fold jump from the 10,000 members now. 

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