new delhi, Dec. 25 -- For India's affluent, convenience never sat in apps or bookings but in the privilege of things done for them-access to anything, anywhere with no friction or complexity and satisfaction guaranteed. That was traditionally delivered by humans: house managers, executive assistants, and trusted fixers who served the everyday world to the wealthy. Now, a new set of startups is attempting to sculpt that quiet operating system into a product. Over the past year, personal concierge services have drawn renewed attention from founders and large consumer platforms alike. After a short stint leading Flipkart Minutes, Kabeer Biswas, the founder of delivery platform Dunzo, is raising around $12 million for an AI-led personal concierge venture, The Economic Times reported last month. Food delivery and quick commerce brand Swiggy has launched Crew, a travel and lifestyle concierge positioned as a premium extension of its core platform-signalling a category taking shape in its own right, albeit one aimed at a smaller addressable market. Consumer-facing players like Indulge and Pinch sell access via subscriptions, relying on salaried concierges backed by software. Legacy operators like LesConcierges are a pure B2B play, embedding concierge offerings for banks, brands, real estate developers, and loyalty programs. Swiggy's Crew, currently live in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and the NCR region, offers a broad menu of services: securing hard-to-get restaurant reservations, curating end-to-end travel itineraries, organizing birthday parties and gifts, handling airport transfers, and even assisting with tasks such as Aadhaar updates. Unlike Swiggy's core food and grocery businesses, Crew is not built for speed or frequency. Instead, it targets users willing to pay for judgment, access, and follow-through-attributes traditionally associated with human concierges rather than apps. This renewed interest has pulled in a new crop of startups, each angling for a piece of the pie at a different level of service. Pinch Lifestyle, founded in 2021 and bootstrapped so far, is among the earlier attempts to bring concierge services to a consumer audience. The company positions itself as a horizontal orchestration layer, sitting above multiple service verticals. Its subscriptions range from Rs.999 for a tech-only plan to about Rs.1.5 lakh a month for high-touch support. Pinch currently services roughly 400 households, concentrated in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, with a smaller presence in cities such as Jodhpur, Bhubaneswar, Lucknow, and even parts of Jammu & Kashmir. Indulge Global, founded in 2022, and backed early by Nikhil Kamath of online brokerage Zerodha fame, operates further up the value chain. With annual subscriptions priced around Rs.4 lakh and a client base of roughly 300, Indulge has an uber-premium positioning. The company has also introduced an artificial intelligence-led plan at Rs.1 lakh a year, allowing customers to interact primarily with a trained AI agent supported by humans. "Automation across finance, technology, and customer relationships is helping us become leaner over time," said Karan Bhangay, founder of Indulge. Then there are legacy players like LesConcierges, founded in 1998, which operate almost entirely behind the scenes-and, definitely offline. The company operates as a B2B concierge engine for banks, luxury brands, real estate developers, and loyalty programs, servicing over 150 clients across more than 600 sites. Its founder Dipali Sikand says concierge support doesn't fit platform-style monetization "Concierge does not monetize like e-commerce or platforms. You don't pay for tasks. You pay for judgment, continuity, access, and accountability," she said....