Laundry aggregator Urban Dhobi raises angel funds

Jaipur-based on-demand laundry startup Urban Dhobi Services Pvt Ltd has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from angel investors Vinod Bansal and Sanjeev Singhal.

Bansal and Singhal are Delhi-based serial investors.

Urban Dhobi will utilise the funds to expand its operations and team, it said. The startup is looking to hire people in technology, operations, and sales and marketing.

It aims to expand its operations to more cities, including Ahmedabad, Pune, Hyderabad, Chandigarh and Kota over the next six months, Satyam Mishra, co-founder and CEO of the company, told VCCircle.

Launched in July 2015, Urban Dhobi is an online aggregator for laundromats founded by Satyam Mishra, Prakhar Pagaria, Tushar Thettayil and Saransh Sidhu. The startup has serviced 2,500 customers. In August 2015, the startup was incubated by Startup Oasis, a Jaipur-based incubation centre set up at the joint initiative of RIICO, Rajasthan government's industrial promotion organisation, and the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship at IIM-Ahmedabad.

Mishra also said the company is looking to raise pre-Series A funding by April end.

Urban Dhobi takes orders of minimum three kilogram of clothes at a price point of Rs 150. The startup, which picks up orders from the customer's location and delivers the clothes, claims to be the only company in India fulfilling its delivery promise within 24 hours. The company has an Android app, and is looking to launch its iOS app soon.

The Indian laundry market is estimated at Rs 200,000 crore, of which 95 per cent falls in the unorganised category. The online laundry segment is attracting investor attention. Last week, home services startup Housejoy acquired on-demand laundry services provider MyWash for an undisclosed amount.

In November 2015, on-demand laundry service platform Flashdoor raised angel funding led by former Flipkart executive Sujeet Kumar. Wassup, an on-demand laundry and dry-cleaning services startup, acquired express laundry service provider Chamak for an undisclosed amount. In 2015, PickMyLaundry, a mobile platform that facilitates booking and delivery of laundry services had raised $100,000 from Green House Ventures.