With a rapidly growing population in Hyderabad, working professionals and couples are increasingly looking for on-demand services to their daily needs, and laundry is definitely one of the activities topping their ‘to-do’ work list on weekends. To Overcome this situation Dheeraj and Vinil Chandra Ranga Started Startup Called WashApp.
How WashApp Started?
“I used to work for 6 days a week and hardly had time for washing the clothes. About three hours of every week went in this chore and end up with undesirable results. That gave the idea of starting a business that handles this regular chore,” says Dheeraj, who earlier worked with Maruti Suzuki as Logistics Manager.
He and his friend Vinil Chandra Ranga, who is the chief executive officer of the firm, along with others in the team have given up their earlier corporate jobs and started this venture and named it WashApp.
With an idea in mind, they resigned their jobs and incubated at T-Hub, Hyderabad to work on the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and launched WashApp in May 2016 with a pilot in the Manikonda suburb of Hyderabad and started operations across IT corridor on Dec 16.
How It Works:
If you want to try their service, all you have to do is schedule a pick-up via using their app or website or through a phone call. Based on the time slot, WashApp rider will arrive at your place and clothes are picked up and taken to WashApp’s hub.
At the hub, clothes are separately tagged with coded labels and photographed for traceability. All the clothes are then sent to the washing facility where they are sorted based on color and fabric and washed in industrial laundry machines with superior chemicals. The clothes are then steam ironed, beautifully packed and delivered to customers during the chosen time slot.
The value that a tech-driven player such as WashApp provides is quality, convenience, and reliability.
And with busy lifestyles, people hardly find time for laundry. We operate early in the morning 7:30 am till 10 pm which enables customers to give their clothes based on their convenience. We have also built robust technology for our operations which enables us to reduce all the operational issues and maintain consistency in service.
Differentiator – Learn from failures.
“Laundry is very different when compared to other services in the on-demand economy. Maintaining quality is a big issue. As every laundromat operates on its own rules, there are no standards that are set to be followed which brings inefficiency into the system.
As the ticket size is low and in an Uber kind of model 40% of your cost goes towards pick-up and delivery which makes it difficult to even sustain,” says Vinil, adding that they have learned a lot from the failed startups and have met some founders personally to avoid the same mistakes.
We have built strong SOP’s to ensure the entire supply chain process remains intact and we able to maintain consistency, Being tech savvy we built multiple solutions which are Atom – which is a perfect CRM and ERP solution for doing Laundry operations and Locus – logistics engine which optimises the route and enables delivery boys to save time and fuel.
WashApp now follows a hub-and-spoke model with a smart scheduling technology recently launched to utilize the manpower optimally. It is also looking to set up laundry kiosks or a pick-up and delivery store where people can drop off clothes and update the details in the app.
The on-demand laundry service market in India is expected to grow to $46.5 billion by next year, according to Euromonitor International. Cashing in on this, several startups have forayed into this space. However, many of them following the Uber (aggregator) model have failed due to excessive costs. We have understood the challenges specifically faced by this industry and had worked for more than 6 months to address the industry problems rather than acquiring customers.
WashApp has Changed its aggregator Model to Hybrid Model where the company is establishing semi-automated laundry units which can serve 5000 pcs per day using FOCO Model (Franchise owned Company operated) Currently it is looking for strategic investors to raise funds and scale their operations across Hyderabad.
Traction and Expansion Plan:
At present, WashApp has operations in Gachibowli, Madhapur, Kondapur, KPHB, Pragathi Nagar, Nizampet, Kukatpally and Jubilee Hills. It has processed more than 2 lakh clothes over 14,000 orders, managed by 10 member team.
They have around 12,000+ app downloads and have also tied up with some hostels and PGs to provide subscription-based service.
They recently launched Monthly plans which are customizable according to customer specific needs and customers can save up to 30% when compared to regular prices.
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