KLiNCO | This Bangalore-based startup serves as a one-stop solution for customers’ all laundry and dry cleaning needs by using a Natural & Organic cleaning process
- ByStartupStory | March 7, 2022
-“This is the era of entrepreneurship. Follow your passion and be the master of your craft. Nobody can copy your abilities since no one can do it better than you.” – Dinesh Bhaleri, Founder of KLiNCO in an exclusive interview with Startup Story.
Dinesh Bhaleri completed his graduation in Aircraft Maintenance Engineering and became a Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer with India’s prestigious airline IndiGo after his joining in 2014. During his tenure with IndiGo in Delhi, he noticed that sparing time for doing laundry is a very challenging task for working women, working bachelors and elderly people at home. This problem captured his attention and he started his research to give a prominent solution to society for this problem. He continued his research for a few years and finally succeeded in finding an advanced technology called OzyClean to wash the garments naturally and hygienically. He made up his mind to start on-demand laundry services for the public so that everyone can take advantage of his unique technology and they can spend their valuable time with their family and other productive activities instead of doing laundry.
“I used to witness my mother washing clothes for the entire family, drying everything out, and ironing them,” he adds, “It’s an exhausting task. So I used to think about how I might help her, but it was only a thought at that moment. However, when I arrived in Delhi during my journey with indigo. I realize that every women home-maker in the house has the same experience. And it was from there that I got the notion to establish a laundry service.”
Being in IndiGo, Mr Bhaleri was relocated to Bangalore in 2018 after getting promoted, but destiny had other plans for him. In 2020 the pandemic happened due to COVID-19 and travel and hospitality industry were affected dramatically. In this storm of pandemics and troubles, he lost his prestigious job with IndiGo just a day before his birthday. It was a challenging time for him because being an elder son at home he was bound with financial liabilities as well. But he did not lose his hope, instead, he gathered his strength and In July 2020, Dinesh founded his own company KLiNCO, India’s first Organic Laundry Service providing startup. His innovative technology OzyClean is very effective in killing all types of germs, bacteria, viruses (including COVID virus) and other microbes from the garments naturally and hence offers sanitized laundry to customers.
From his own home, he began trials and testing. He told us that he had ruined a number of his mother’s sarees initially but then there was no going back. He is serving entire Bangalore with this unique laundry service by offering doorstep pick-up and delivery. So far his team has processed more than 2,71,000 pieces of clothes in just one and half years.“My career as an employee came to an end on July 22, 2020. And on July 23, 2020, on my birthday, it was a new dawn for me as an entrepreneur who decided not to work for any company anymore and established my own company”.
“Pandemic” became a source of revenue for the company.
When Klinco launched in July 2020, the world was in the middle of a financial collapse. However, The global pandamic has brought in a period of unprecedented growth for the brand due to its sanitized laundry services. KLiNCO Organic Laundry is the finest laundry service dedicated to offering its customers Hygienic, Affordable, and On-Time laundry. The company has registered its revenue growth as 136% quarter by quarter and the current valuation of his company is worth 20 Crore, Dinesh claims.
In an exclusive interview with Startup Story, Dinesh Bhaleri explains its business model. He mentioned that during covid as people were restricted to move out of their house he offered free pickups and deliveries and that’s when the business began to grow. As people do swiggy and zomato, the same way KLiNCO works. Customers do not need to visit the store; instead, their service is just a call away. Customers can place their order for laundry through WhatsApp as well. Rest everything KLiNCO takes care of. “Our representative visits them at their residence. As per the service, he’ll count the items and weigh them at the same time, he gives the consumer a receipt and brings garments to the store. And after that, an invoice is generated and sent to the customers.” Customers are getting the update when their laundry is getting ready and also provide the delivery as per customer’s convenience.
Funding, Future Plans and Numerous Challenges
When Dinesh started this venture he invested all he had into it, including his savings. The firm is currently bootstrapped and manages its funds well. Now the company is looking for opportunities with angel investors for funding to have their further growth and planning to open another 200 outlets by the end of next year. The brand is getting ready to launch an app that will make operations more customer-friendly. Customers may schedule pick-up and delivery of their laundry immediately through the app. KLiNCO also plans to open more stores before the end of this year, as well as expand into other metro cities.
The company introduced change to the market and began offering environment-friendly laundry services to its clients. However, when the firm first started, it had a problem of “Trust Issues.” Customers first had difficulty in believing their services. Nevertheless, the brand overcame this obstacle by demonstrating work capability and trustworthiness. Right now the brand is offering various services, such as Laundry, Dry-cleaning, Shoe cleaning, Bag Cleaning, carpets cleaning, curtains cleaning, steam ironing and many more.
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