AgencyMart: A Startup Reimagining B2B Service Outsourcing in India

Finding the right service partner has long been one of the trickiest challenges for startups and MSMEs in India. In a space crowded with agencies promising the world and reviews that don’t always tell the full story, AgencyMart — a relatively new entrant — is attempting to offer a more structured solution.

Founded by Arnav Gupta and Harsh Agarwal, AgencyMart describes itself as India’s first B2B marketplace for business services. Its approach to matching businesses with agencies is built around one major idea: consultation before connection, with a strong focus on verification and comparability.

Why Outsourcing Needed a Rethink

The broader outsourcing market for professional services in India is growing steadily.

According to NASSCOM (2024), the business services outsourcing sector is set to cross $300 billion by 2027, supported by a 10.6% CAGR. MSMEs — which contribute nearly 30% to India's GDP and employ over 111 million people (Ministry of MSME, 2023) — are the backbone of this demand.

However, outsourcing is a high-involvement purchase. A bad agency partnership can lead to missed growth targets, reputational risks, and significant financial setbacks — something small businesses can rarely afford. Despite the abundance of choice online, most marketplaces today offer little real support in helping businesses make the right choice.

This is the gap that AgencyMart is trying to address.

How AgencyMart’s Model Works

Rather than acting as a listing platform, AgencyMart takes a more curated and consultative approach:

1. Requirement Building: Instead of asking businesses to upload a generic brief, AgencyMart’s team collaborates with them to create a detailed requirement document. This makes the client’s needs clearer and easier for agencies to respond to meaningfully.
2. Agency Pitches: Shortlisted agencies receive the requirement document and submit a standardized one-page pitch, following a provided format. This ensures clients can evaluate proposals side-by-side without the noise of glossy marketing materials.
3. Side-by-Side Comparison: Businesses receive all pitches in a comparable format, helping them make decisions based on structured information rather than subjective impressions.
4. Verification Process: AgencyMart puts agencies through a verification process involving project samples, client reference checks, and LinkedIn validation. It’s an effort to create more accountability and trust in an often unregulated market.
5. Direct Connections: Once a business selects an agency, AgencyMart connects both parties directly, without intermediating future transactions or charging high commissions.

The goal, as stated by the founders, is to save clients time, reduce risk, and improve decision-making clarity — all without heavy involvement post-match.

For Agencies, a Different Kind of Marketplace

AgencyMart’s pitch to agencies is also somewhat unconventional compared to typical B2B marketplaces:

• There’s no bidding war for random leads.
• Agencies submit verified credentials and compete based on a uniform pitch.
• Since the client requirements are well-defined from the start, agency-side time spent chasing unclear leads is significantly reduced.

Early data suggests that this model reduces customer acquisition costs for agencies by up to 50% compared to traditional cold outreach or lead generation platforms.

Where AgencyMart Fits in Broader Market Trends

What AgencyMart is doing aligns with a larger shift in B2B marketplaces globally.

McKinsey's Future of B2B Marketplaces report (2024) noted that:

• 70% of B2B buyers now prefer assisted purchasing journeys rather than traditional open marketplaces.
• Consultative marketplaces are seeing adoption rates three times faster than purely listing-based platforms.

In this sense, AgencyMart appears to be part of a newer wave of startups that believe curation and trust-building are the next frontiers for B2B commerce, not simply providing “more options.”

Observations Going Forward

AgencyMart’s model addresses some long-standing pain points in business outsourcing, especially for smaller enterprises that lack the resources to perform exhaustive agency due diligence themselves.

However, a few questions remain as it scales:

• Can the platform maintain quality control as the number of clients and agencies grows?
• Will standardized one-pagers remain effective for more complex service needs?
• How will the platform evolve if competitors adopt similar models with greater tech integration?

Regardless, for now, AgencyMart represents an interesting experiment in reintroducing trust and structure into B2B service marketplaces — a segment that has often prioritized scale over reliability.