Chennai-based Dhobi G secures 1.5-crore funding from Indian Overseas Bank

Chennai-headquartered Dhobi G has secured a funding of ₹1.5 crore from Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) for its enlargement plans.

“The funds shall be utilised to develop laundry services in 5 extra campuses, serving 7,500+ college students within the subsequent section,” stated Ravi Ranjan, founder and CEO of Dhobi G, which affords laundry companies, primarily specializing in faculties and universities.

“We are extra faculties in Chennai. We are additionally venturing into the northern a part of India. The Bengaluru and Coimbatore markets are additionally being checked out. In the following 12 months, we intend to serve over 20,000 college students,” Mr. Ranjan instructed The Hindu.

Dhobi G was formally incubated on November 18, 2022, as a part of Velocity Cohort 2, and welcomed its first buyer, SRM University, in August 2023. The firm was based by three engineering college students, who had been classmates — Ravi Ranjan (founder and CEO), Ankur Gupta (co-founder and COO), and Daksh Sabharwal (co-founder and CMO).

Mr. Ranjan stated: “Our first try was not Dhobi G as you see it as we speak. We truly launched an e-commerce laundry app. At first, issues appeared good till one among our companion laundries began getting greater than 10 orders a day. Then the complaints got here flooding in. Late deliveries. Wrong garments. Unhappy prospects.”

“When we sat down with that companion, we discovered two huge points: unskilled workforce — nobody was educated to deal with quantity or totally different materials and Secondly, unorganised programs — no monitoring, no accountability, no course of. That is once we realised — the issue is greater than simply getting orders. We examined, failed, and rebuilt till the system may run with out chaos,” he famous.

So, whereas bootstrapping, Dhobi G constructed CILDC (Centre for Innovation in Laundry and Dry Cleaning) to coach individuals, and LaundryOS to run laundry operations like clockwork. “Only after proving this mannequin with SRM University did we elevate ₹20 lakh from family and friends, adopted by ₹25 lakh seed funding from NSRCEL at IIM Bangalore,” Mr. Rajan stated.

When requested concerning the crowded laundry market with quite a few present gamers, he stated: “The market is large — ₹1.9 lakh crore — however institutional laundry is uncared for. Colleges are nonetheless caught with handbook programs, untrained workers, and limitless complaints. Students and directors each need zero-CAPEX, tech-first, accountability-driven laundry.”

Responding to a question on water points throughout areas, Mr. Ranjan stated, “In India, water shortage is just not a future drawback — it’s already right here. Our water-efficient machines save the equal of 570 municipal water tankers yearly.”