Building WeClean. WeClean is revolutionizing the dry cleaning industry with tech-innovation, eco-friendly practices at an affordable pricing. WeClean is a technologically advanced & highly trusted Laundry, Dry Cleaning, Steam Ironing, Shoe & Bag Spa, Curtain & Carpet Cleaning service. WeClean provides the convenience of doorstep pick up & drop as per user’s availability with an integrated software (app) that allows users & backend team, the convenience of booking & tracking orders. WeClean is looking to expand its services deeper within Mumbai and additionally to 20+ cities across India, within the next 5 years.

I researched the Retail Laundry (B2C) Industry in Mumbai for nearly 8 months by visiting various laundries. I'd categorize them as: 1) Professional set up - which caters to multiple pincodes/locations & has more than 20 employees working, ensures all legal & statutory compliances & licenses are in place, where no work is outsourced. 2) Single Unit/Micro Laundries (Dhobi) set up - which has less than 20 employees, usually just a collection store that caters to 1-2 pincodes & outsources some/most of the work. 3) Aggregator set up - which does no processing, outsources everything to one or multiple vendors, facilitates Pickup & Drop for customers, may or may not have more than 20 employees. Some new startups preferred this asset-lite aggregator model. I compared the price points, the services, USPs, convenience offered, marketing techniques, target audience, retention schemes & pain points of all the visited laundries. I feel acing this industry is extremely difficult without 1) Proper End-to-End Technology, 2) Trained Professionals & 3) Finding a PMF. As of 2019, Less than 5% of the retail laundry industry comprises of professional, aggregator or E-laundry set up. Over 95% of the retail space is dominated by Micro sized laundries that continue to follow the traditional practices. The retail laundry market is estimated to be at 1.5 billion dollars & the E-Laundry/Online Laundry players account for 10%, i.e. 150M dollars in India according to a redseer report. In the last 10 years, a lot of players jumped in, wanting to organize the industry. Over 75% of them shut shop due to 1) lack of investment backing, 2) lack of online transacting users, 3) availability of cheaper traditional alternatives (major competition). While Tech founders understand opportunities, business models and unit economics, it is very important to realize that this is a highly chaotic, Operations heavy space first. Any startup that can find a good balance of Ops + Tech can become a Game Changer.