How Arunabh Sinha Built a 900+ Store Laundry Business From an Underrated Idea

So, if we talk about revenue, what would the revenue be per month right now?

The last financial year’s revenue is around ₹210 crore.

It was quite late at night, so I thought we would wash this tomorrow. I had just put it inside the dryer and left.

At around 1:00 AM at night, I received a call from Domino’s Pizza saying, “Your store has caught fire.”

Now we live in Faridabad. We rushed from there, and by the time we reached Vasant Kunj, the entire store had already been burnt to ashes.

Did you have this thought in your mind that the “dhobi” tag is still something like that, or do you still hear people saying things like that?

I actually wear it as a badge of honor. If you look at the news, you see terms like ATM Dhobi, Bihari Laundry Wala, Bihari Dhobi. I am very proud of them.

But even today, if you look at society, “dhobi” is not a very respected word.

Your mother had a dream that you would travel in a car with a red beacon. What is her reaction now?

Now she is happy. Actually, she gets the most happiness from such things.

What do you think are some other underrated businesses in India that people can try?

I have a lot of belief in this.

There is a series called Sapne vs Everyone. There is a line in it:

“Umar bhar khayali bhooton se jo na main darta,
Ae Khuda kya zor se jeeta, ae Khuda kya chain se marta.”

That has become the philosophy of my life.

Introduction to Arunabh Sinha and UClean

Hello friends, welcome to another wonderful episode.

Friends, today’s guest is Arunabh Sinha, the founder of UClean. He has been running a laundry business since 2017.

Today, we will learn about his business as well as his journey.

How did he reach IIT Bombay? After IIT Bombay, how did he start his business? And today, UClean has more than 900 stores, and at the same time, he has expanded internationally as well.

Welcome, Arunabh sir, to our channel.

Thank you. Thank you so much, Satish ji.

How are you, sir?

Absolutely fine. How are you?

Absolutely great, sir.

So I would like to know, how did a boy from Bihar start such a big business?

Let’s start from the beginning.

How did you travel from Bihar and reach IIT Bombay? Please tell us a little about it.

From a Small Village in Bihar to IIT Bombay

We have a very small village in Bihar called Dimna. I was born there.

I have two sisters, and today Dimna is part of Jamshedpur city.

But at that time, when we were growing up, we lived in Dimna, and right next to us was Jamshedpur, which was already quite a modern city at that time.

Because Jamshedpur is the only city which has a private municipal corporation.

Jamshedpur is owned by Tata Steel. So there was no government municipal corporation there.

Even at that time, Jamshedpur had electricity 20–24 hours a day. The roads were very good. The infrastructure was very good.

And we were just 5 km away from there in Dimna, which was under the Bihar government.

So we did not have 20 hours of electricity. There was no water. There were hardly any roads.

We used to walk 3–3 km to school.

Especially when we went to school, there were some children who were children of Tata Steel employees.

Their parents were working at Tata Steel.

Listening to them created a little jealousy inside us because their lives were very good.

Even in the 1990s, they had a very good life.

So at that time, there was only one purpose in life, one mission for the entire family: somehow get a job at Tata Steel so that we could move from Dimna to Jamshedpur.

We wanted to cover that 5 km journey.

Everyone said, “Study well, crack the exam, become an engineer and join Tata Steel.”

How IIT JEE Changed His Life

Then I think in 1998, IIT JEE suddenly became very popular in Jamshedpur.

Because there was a person named Abhinav Kumar who had achieved All India Rank 1 in it.

Suddenly, everywhere in Jamshedpur, Abhinav Kumar’s interviews and photographs were appearing in newspapers.

People came to know that there was something called IIT JEE through which you could become an engineer.

After that, we started focusing on IIT JEE.

We had to clear IIT JEE. We had to work hard.

My sister was about four years older than me, so I used to read her books because someone told me, “Start reading advanced books from now itself. You will get into IIT.”

Fortunately, the formula eventually paid off.

I cleared IIT JEE.

After that, according to my rank, the options available to me included IIT Bombay.

All the IITs were available in different departments.

At that time, I had another urge.

I thought, “If I am going to make such a big jump, why jump from Jamshedpur to Kharagpur? If I have to make the jump, then I should go from Jamshedpur to Bombay.”

That was the thought.

I didn’t know whether IIT Bombay was the best or IIT Kharagpur was better or IIT Kanpur was better.

But Bombay was the farthest and it was the “Maya Nagari,” so I chose Metallurgy at IIT Bombay.

IIT Bombay also comes at the top even today.

At that time, I think IIT Kharagpur was also very good. IIT Kanpur was also very good because they were among the oldest IITs.

But there was no real sense behind it.

There was just a gut feeling that the farthest IIT and the Maya Nagari—go there.

What rank did you get in JEE?

I got 185, sir.

So you cracked IIT Bombay in your first attempt itself?

And did you prepare yourself or did you take coaching?

I prepared myself.

At that time, coaching centres were not very famous.

I think Kota was just starting or was in its early days.

Also Read: How Esha Built Repeat Good From a College Idea to a ₹25 Crore Food Brand

From IIT Bombay to His First Job

You reached IIT.

After completing your B.Tech from IIT, what did you do?

Did you take a job or start something of your own?

The interesting thing was that I had spent my entire life preparing for IIT because I wanted to reach Tata Steel.

But when placements came, there was a very big difference between the salary package Tata Steel was offering and what consulting firms were offering.

The consulting firms were offering double the package of Tata Steel.

Fortunately, I got an offer from ZS Associates, a Chicago- and Pune-based consulting firm.

The offer I received from them was double that of Tata Steel.

So that day I decided that I would not go to Tata Steel.

I took that job and started working there.

I was based in Pune.

I worked there for one year.

Then I left that job and started my first startup, which is a company called Frank Global, which still exists today.

There, we started working with international brands.

We used to tell them about the Indian market.

We used to prepare Indian market reports for them.

We used to tell them how they should enter India and how much investment would be required.

We used to find partners for them.

Fortunately, through our network, we got some very good clients.

We worked with Davidson bikes, motorcycles, and Burger King.

We helped and supported all these brands in entering India, and the business started scaling well.

How did you pitch them?

How Treebo Hotels Revealed the Laundry Business Opportunity

Two very good things happened there.

First, I understood that budget hotels in India did not have in-house laundry.

What were they doing?

They were outsourcing their laundry to a local dhobi or local player.

The biggest challenge was that Treebo was expanding, and among the customer complaints it was receiving, 60% were laundry-related.

People wrote:

“My bedsheet was dirty.”

“The curtains were torn.”

“The towels were dirty.”

When we analyzed it, we realized that 60% of the complaints in the budget hotel segment in India were related to the laundry industry.

So when I initially entered the market to solve this, my intention was not to start UClean.

My intention was to find a player who could service all our hotels across India.

But during that process, I understood two things.

One was that this industry was very large.

There was a KPMG report saying it was a $60–70 billion industry.

The second thing, which I think was more important, was that the industry was 99% unorganized.

So we couldn’t provide a solution.

There was no national-level player, or even a player in Delhi, that could service all the hotels.

This became a very big finding for me:

The laundry industry was ripe for disruption.

Honestly speaking, because once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur.

Independence was enough, but my business wasn’t.

So there was this urge again that I should start something of my own.

Then I decided that we would do laundry.

First, I discussed it with my wife.

She was very excited because we had recently got married, and she was saying that she also struggled.

“I like wearing good clothes. I like wearing clean clothes. That is not possible at home, and I feel scared giving them outside.”

So I think that is a very good idea.

Then came the second level—talking to parents.

Why His Family Was Shocked When He Chose Laundry

We are from Bihar.

As long as I can remember, my mother had two dreams.

One was that I would clear IIT and become an engineer.

The second was Tata Steel.

And the third was a car with a red beacon.

That is the ultimate mission of many Biharis in life—crack UPSC and travel in a car with a red beacon.

So I had fulfilled some of those dreams.

I couldn’t fulfill this one.

And on top of that, I was saying that after leaving such a good hotel-industry job, I wanted to become a dhobi.

That was very shocking for them.

They thought, “You are getting such a good salary. You will give that up and become a dhobi? What will people say?”

On top of that, relatives started calling.

“Then what was the need to do IIT? If you wanted to become a dhobi, you could have done that after 10th.”

There was a lot of family pressure.

People couldn’t understand it.

But I am a little stubborn.

I had decided that if I had to do it, I had to do it.

So I spoke to my wife, and we decided that my wife was working as the digital marketing lead at HCL at that time.

So Gunjan would continue doing her work, and I would take the leap of faith.

I would fight it out and see how to build it.

And Gunjan was moonlighting at a time when the term “moonlighting” did not even exist.

She didn’t have much work at HCL.

So she would do HCL work during the day and work entirely on UClean at night.

You had sold the agency. Can you tell us how much you sold it for?

I cannot disclose the value because we had a non-disclosure agreement with them.

Okay. Fine.

So this is how UClean started.

How the Name UClean Was Created

How did you think of the name UClean?

Okay, the name is very funny in the sense that when we started UClean, we thought about what happens in Europe or America, where people come to a laundromat, wash their clothes themselves and leave.

We thought we would bring that culture to India as well.

We were very bullish.

So we said that our brand would be called UClean.

You come and wash your own clothes.

We researched a lot.

We created a nice logo.

We created brand colors.

We spent money on it.

We also used a branding agency.

And after that, when we launched our first store in Vasant Kunj, which is still there today, we understood within the first seven days that we had one customer.

Rent was going on.

I was also spending my time.

We had hired just one person.

We understood that UClean would not work in India.

If it was not working in Vasant Kunj, it would not work anywhere in India.

The model you had created was the self-service model.

Yes.

We got only one customer in seven days.

And even that customer was the owner of the Mother Dairy opposite us.

We literally begged him to come and wash his clothes.

Within seven days, we understood that this model was not sustainable because manpower is cheap in India.

Manpower is abundant in India.

Why would people come to a laundromat to wash their own clothes?

So we switched the model.

We would come to your home, pick up the clothes, wash them and deliver them back.

But by then we had fallen in love with the name UClean.

We had spent money on the logo.

We had spent money on the brand colors.

We had spent money on everything.

We had already taken the domain.

Now, in the name of getting a new name, we had neither the time nor the money nor the interest.

So we changed the story a little.

We said that UClean means:

“You are a customer. You are at the center of our cleaning unit.”

So today, when the media asks me what UClean means, we tell them exactly that.

U means customer, and we develop all our cleaning services around you.

But this is our story.

The actual story was not this.

Also Read: How Dayashankar Built a Solar Business From Blogging and YouTube

The Biggest Early Challenge: Founder’s Ego

What other challenges came after that?

When you changed the model, what were the initial challenges from the first store to reaching 900 stores?

The biggest challenge was what I would call founder’s ego or founder’s pride.

When we started, I thought:

“I am from IIT. I am very hardworking. I am Bihari. I will crack this industry. I will understand it.”

So I watched lots of YouTube videos.

I read books.

I ordered books about the laundry business—how clothes should be cleaned, how stains should be removed.

And I hired only one person who did pressing.

So I was the store manager.

I did the washing.

I also did the delivery.

And Gunjan supported me.

Plus, this was our Iron Man, Anil.

When we switched the model, orders started coming.

We launched on January 17, 2017.

Then on January 25–26, we flipped the model.

On February 8, through Gunjan’s contacts, we received an order of around 80 towels from a spa in Vasant Kunj.

It was nighttime, so I went there, picked up the towels and came back to the store.

Now, we had a rat problem in our store.

So what did we do?

Before leaving at night, we used to put all the clothes inside our washer and dryer because rats couldn’t get inside them.

That day also, we did the same thing.

It had become quite late, so I thought we would wash them tomorrow.

I had put them inside the dryer and left.

At around 1:00 AM, I received a call from Domino’s Pizza saying:

“Your store has caught fire.”

We lived in Faridabad.

We rushed from there, and by the time we reached Vasant Kunj, the entire store had been burnt to ashes.

There was an investment of around ₹18–20 lakh.

There were multiple machines.

Everything was reduced to ashes.

What Caused the UClean Store Fire?

And how did the fire start?

Then we understood.

The dryer traps heat.

Even at home, when you use a dryer, you will see that heat gets trapped inside it.

You are always told to open it and leave it for 15–20 minutes so that the heat can dissipate.

But we had just finished the work.

We were in a hurry to go home.

So what did I do?

I put all the spa towels inside the dryer and closed it.

Now, what happens with spa towels?

They contain aromatic oils, which are highly inflammable.

Over a period of time, the trapped heat reacted with those aromatic oils and burned the entire machine and the entire store.

But this was a basic mistake.

If I had removed my overconfidence and hired a proper laundry person, that person could have very easily told me:

“Don’t put these clothes in the dryer right now.”

Because this is very common in the industry.

And how did you figure out that this was the reason for the fire?

When the laundry people found out that a laundry had caught fire, some people came on their own to help.

They asked what we had done.

They immediately diagnosed that we had put the towels inside the dryer.

For me, it was a very big ego hit, but it was also a very big lesson:

As a founder, you cannot do everything on your own.

You have to find experts who are better than you.

You have to figure out how to bring them on board.

How UClean Was Reborn After a ₹20 Lakh Loss

Now the store had burned down to ashes.

We also didn’t have money.

Whatever money was left, we couldn’t use it because I didn’t know when I would be able to withdraw money for myself from the business.

So we didn’t want to touch our savings.

Literally, on February 8, 2017, UClean was a dead story.

But that night, before going to sleep, I again used LinkedIn.

The company from which we bought our machines was an American company.

I found their CEO and sent him a LinkedIn message at night.

I wrote:

“I want to bring a laundry revolution to India. I am working very hard. I built a model.”

Then I attached a photograph and said:

“Look, your machine has burned. Can you help me?”

I sent it and left it.

He actually replied.

It was the time of Skype.

He said, “Let’s get on a Skype call. Try it at this time according to American time.”

I was shocked.

I joined the call.

Then I started talking about the same things—that I would bring a laundry revolution, I would do this, I would do that.

He said that he liked it.

“You are young. You are passionate. And you are thinking about something.”

Then he told me:

“While we are a $3 billion company, India is one market where we have not been able to enter.”

He said they had not entered India because the culture was different.

“So we want to enter India. We are ready to support you. We will work with you and grow our business here through you.”

But there were two conditions.

“One, I will reset your entire store without any investment from you.”

“But you will have to sign with me that for the next three years, whenever you buy machines, only our machines will go in.”

So, when you are dying, what else can you do?

The machines were actually good too.

So I signed the agreement with them.

They literally set up the entire store again free of cost.

Around the middle of March, we started UClean Version 2.0 again.

UClean was literally reborn in March 2017.

And we started the store at the same place.

It is still there today.

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Why UClean Chose Vasant Kunj

So what was the reason?

You lived in Faridabad.

Why did you start in Vasant Kunj?

One of my beliefs is that if you are bringing anything new, there are some markets in India that are the biggest testing grounds.

South Delhi is one of them.

From the beginning, we were very clear that we wanted to try in South Delhi.

If South Delhi accepted it, we would understand that India’s premium markets would accept it.

After that, you go to the second layer of markets.

In South Delhi, we looked at GK2, GK1, Vasant Kunj, Hauz Khas and so on.

In Vasant Kunj, we found a very interesting store located between two schools.

One is Ryan International and the other is Vasant Valley.

The store is exactly between them.

One advantage was that there was a lot of footfall from drivers in the morning and evening.

Drivers can be a very big laundry business.

Because if you look at affluent families in South Delhi, they generally don’t come themselves to give their laundry.

They give it to their drivers.

The driver decides where the clothes should go.

So being between these two schools was a very big advantage.

At the same time, our store was opposite Mother Dairy.

There is a lot of footfall at Mother Dairy in the morning and evening.

Our machines are 6.5 feet long.

So what did we do?

We did not put any branding in front of the store.

We installed a glass door, put a sign on top and deliberately placed the machine in such a way that people could see from Mother Dairy that there was this strange 6.5-foot-long machine.

People are not used to seeing a 6-foot washing machine.

So many people would come inside purely out of curiosity.

“What is this?”

Then we would explain.

“We have a washing machine that will give you better results.”

They would ask, “Really?”

We would say, “Yes, absolutely. Try it.”

So all our initial orders came this way.

Either Mother Dairy customers came purely out of curiosity, or drivers who came to drop children at Ryan or Vasant Valley schools came in.

So the location you chose—had you already done R&D that if you did it at such a place, there could be benefits?

We had definitely used the school logic.

The Mother Dairy part, I would say, was a stroke of luck.

We hadn’t figured out that this would actually happen because of Mother Dairy.

Our main focus was the school.

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How UClean Chose the Franchise Business Model

Before starting UClean, did you have the franchise model in your mind?

I believe franchising runs in my blood.

When I started my first company, Frank Global, in 2010, that was also a franchising company.

At that time, I started enjoying franchising a lot.

Working with other entrepreneurs, making them successful, solving their challenges—I started feeling that I liked this business-to-business work.

So I had it in my mind that at some point in time, we would franchise UClean.

What the business model would be, I wasn’t clear at that time.

So what is the current business model?

It is a very simple business model.

We believe that an entrepreneur knows his neighborhood better than we do.

We know laundry very well.

We know dry cleaning very well.

We know how marketing should be done.

But you know your neighborhood better than I do.

There are many people in your neighborhood who know you but don’t know me.

So your strength is your network in the neighborhood.

Your understanding of your neighborhood.

My strength is laundry, dry cleaning and creating awareness.

So our model is straightforward.

You should be from your neighborhood.

You should believe in the laundry industry and UClean.

And you should have an investment of ₹20–25 lakh.

We will help you start your own laundry business under the UClean brand.

Okay.

And what are your charges?

The same charges that we charge customers?

Royalty and so on?

Royalty.

There are two charges.

First, the franchise fee that we charge at the beginning is ₹6 lakh plus GST.

This is a one-time fee that gives you the rights for the next five years to operate UClean in your neighborhood.

Second, we take 7% royalty on your monthly sales.

Whatever your sales are, 7% is our share and 93% is your share.

Many people take a share of profit.

No.

If you look at the majority of franchising brands, they take it on revenue.

Almost all of them take it on revenue.

So UClean has one source of revenue from the stores that you own yourself.

The other comes from franchises.

These are the two revenue models.

UClean Revenue and ₹210 Crore System Sales

So, if we talk about revenue, what would the revenue be per month right now?

If you look at the system, the last full system sales for the last financial year were around ₹210 crore.

If you remove the franchisees—

If you remove the franchisees, our share would increase to around ₹35–36 crore.

No, no, if you are talking only about sales.

Not the franchise fee of ₹6 lakh plus GST.

I’m talking only about the laundry business that is our own.

Okay, great.

So how much did you say?

Around ₹35 crore of ours.

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How UClean Expanded Internationally

And how did you take this business internationally?

International expansion was also very interesting.

I will be honest.

We were already in discussions.

We were thinking that we should go international.

There were boardroom discussions.

There were whiteboarding sessions.

Strategy consultants were giving their ideas.

The operations team was giving their ideas.

During this time, I received a LinkedIn message from a guy in Somalia.

He said:

“I have been following UClean a lot and I was in India. I have seen UClean’s service and I want to bring UClean to Somalia.”

He was not Indian.

He was a proper Somali person who had been in India at some point, perhaps his family or someone had come to India, and he knew about UClean.

He wanted to bring UClean to Somalia.

My first thought was:

“What new scam is this?”

Because the message was coming from Somalia.

I thought he would say:

“Give me your QR code. I will transfer your fee.”

And then money would disappear from my account.

So I said:

“Let’s do this. You come on a call and we will talk on Google Meet.”

We had a Google Meet call.

The guy was educated and looked passionate.

But there was a fear.

So I made up a story and said:

“Look, our board is not sure whether we should enter Somalia or not. You know your country’s reputation isn’t particularly good. You are more famous for pirates.”

We clearly said:

“How should we trust you?”

He said:

“You tell me, how do you want to trust me?”

We said:

“Okay, do this. Transfer $10,000 to prove that you are interested in UClean.”

“After you transfer it, come to India. We will train you and start your entire franchising process.”

The guy said okay.

Three or four days later, we received a message in our account:

“$10,000 received in your account.”

We became happy.

Then we said, “Okay, let’s keep the call.”

We ended the call.

Then we told him to come to India.

We sent him an invitation letter.

Two days later, he called and said:

“Somalia doesn’t have an Indian embassy. It was closed six years ago.”

So we asked, “What will happen now?”

He said:

“I will try the Ethiopian embassy.”

He went to Ethiopia and reached the embassy.

They told him:

“Somalis don’t get an Indian visa.”

“Somalis are not allowed to do business in India.”

“So we cannot give you a visa for training.”

The guy became disappointed.

We were disappointed too.

At the same time, we were also scared that the $10,000 would have to be returned.

That was a very big fear for me.

I thought, “It doesn’t feel good to send money back after it has come.”

The guy said:

“Let me figure it out.”

Then there was complete radio silence for four or five days.

On the sixth day, I received a call.

His name was Usman.

Usman Mahmood.

He said:

“Sir, I am standing at Indira Gandhi International Airport. Where do I have to come?”

We said, “Okay.”

Then we brought him in.

We put him in a hotel.

He received 30 days of training.

Then we found out that Somalis are allowed to enter India on a health visa.

Okay.

There was a hospital in India—I won’t name it.

There was a hospital in Faridabad.

He paid some amount and got a certificate saying that this person was in the last stage of cancer and urgently needed to come to India, so the hospital was inviting him.

Based on that, he came to India.

Then he took training and so on.

We submitted the documents to the embassy and everything.

Then we gave him a proper master franchise.

So the first country we entered, which we would never have imagined in our lives, was Somalia.

After entering Somalia, we became very interested in the Middle East because that is a market where people pay.

Then we signed up in the UAE.

We signed up in Qatar.

Demand started coming from Africa.

Today we are in Mauritius.

We are in Ghana.

External Resource: Arunabh Sinha on LinkedIn

Were you reaching out to these countries or were they approaching you?

It is a mix.

Africa, very honestly, very surprisingly, is completely organic.

People found us.

For example, Ghana has launched.

Mauritius has launched.

Somalia has launched.

In all three places, entrepreneurs reached out to me on LinkedIn saying that they had researched us.

For example, Ghana’s master franchisee had been getting treatment for his father in Chennai for six months.

He regularly used UClean there.

He said:

“I liked it a lot, so I want to bring UClean to Ghana.”

The Mauritius people are of Indian origin.

We are launching in the Republic of Congo next month.

So all of this is organic.

Why the Middle East Is a Target Market

In the Middle East, because that is one market we are actively targeting, what is happening there?

Either there are premium players who provide very good service but are very expensive, or there are very small mom-and-pop stores or local dhobis whose service is poor and reliability is low.

I call this the “missing middle.”

There is nothing in the middle.

Either you have an option that 90% of people cannot afford, which is especially designed for Arabs, or you have completely unreliable mom-and-pop shops.

So from the beginning, we were very clear that we had to target the Middle East because UClean is a perfect brand to capture that missing middle.

So we did marketing there.

We did events.

I went there as a speaker.

And our growth is going quite well there.

Africa is organic.

Mongolia is organic.

Mongolia is another country that we did not have in our plans.

But there is a lady entrepreneur who comes from a housekeeping background.

She reached out to us saying:

“I am extremely keen to also add laundry to my portfolio.”

And she found UClean.

Why International Entrepreneurs Choose UClean

What is different about UClean that instead of reaching out to local brands there, they were reaching out to a brand from India?

More than UClean, I would say that the industry itself is quite unorganized globally as of today.

Mongolia is a perfect example.

There is no brand in Mongolia.

Okay.

This lady runs a housekeeping service.

There, in the name of laundries, there are only local mom-and-pop stores.

There are no machines.

There are no detergents.

So when this lady thought that she should expand her portfolio, that beyond housekeeping she should enter laundry, car wash, etc., she researched.

Fortunately, UClean kept appearing in her research.

UClean’s Customer Mix: Retail vs B2B

And one more thing, is there any data you would like to share about what kind of customers come the most?

Is it the general public coming to get their clothes washed, or is it mostly hotels?

If you look at the business, on an average store basis, 80% of the business is retail families, bachelors and households.

Only 20–25% of the business is B2B.

And even in retail, the most interesting fact, which seems counterintuitive, is that 68% of orders are placed by men and not women.

People think women place the orders and decide the laundry.

But we realized that.

We also thought the same.

But we realized that when it comes to outsourcing, it is the man who takes the decision.

How Laundry Demand Changes From City to City

Usually, people give clothes to laundry when they are premium clothes or clothes worn at weddings.

Is that the case, or do all kinds of clothes go?

I would say it varies a lot from city to city.

For example, if you talk about metros—Delhi, Gurgaon, Bengaluru, Hyderabad—the biggest commodity there is time.

People don’t have time.

Husband and wife are both working or they are bachelors.

For them, money doesn’t matter.

They want someone to do their laundry properly, pack it well, iron it, clean it and package it properly so that they can put it directly into the wardrobe and take it out whenever they need it.

So laundry is very high in metros.

Our two services are very popular.

One is wash and iron by the kilo.

We take your clothes by weight, wash and iron them and give them back.

The second is wash and fold.

Take the example of DU.

In Delhi University, students obviously have lower spending capacity.

Second, they are cool.

They don’t need ironed clothes.

They want their sweatshirt to be clean, but it is okay if it is crumpled.

So the wash-and-fold business is very big there.

They want it washed and folded.

No ironing.

But take Gurgaon.

Here, they want wash and iron because everyone works in corporates.

But it is cheaper for you by the kilo.

It gets delivered within 48 hours.

They put it directly into the wardrobe.

But when we go to smaller cities, we have realized that people won’t give their regular laundry.

They will do it at home.

But when it becomes a premium service—for example, my sherwani, my sari, my suit—I will outsource it.

So dry cleaning is very big there.

Also Read: From Job to ₹5 Lakh/Month: How Shruti Built a Candle Packaging Business

How Many UClean Stores Are in India?

You said there are 900 stores overall.

How many are in India and how many are outside?

Almost 95% are in India.

More than 850 are in India.

We are present in every state in India.

As of today, I think we are present in 225 cities in India.

Internationally, we entered recently.

So internationally, there are only about 25–30 stores.

25–30 and 900 is a very big number, sir.

From the way I see it, how did you achieve such a large number so quickly?

You think it is a big number.

It is very contextual.

There will be very few brands in India with 800–900 stores.

But if you look at it overall, laundry in India is a very hyperlocal business.

So in India alone, you can easily open 4,000–5,000 stores.

I am not even adding international.

So even in India, we have realized only 20% of our potential.

Now let’s see where we reach.

How COVID Changed the Cleaning and Laundry Industry

But one thing that helped us a lot—God forbid it happens again, COVID.

Because what did COVID do?

COVID suddenly made hygiene, cleanliness and sanitation mainstream.

Everyone started talking about how you should stay clean.

Your house should be clean.

Your neighborhood should be clean.

Modi ji also pushed the Swachhata campaign a lot at that time.

Suddenly, laundry, which was an ignored word, became mainstream.

Everyone started thinking:

“I should get my laundry done.”

“There should be a hygienic wash.”

“Sanitization liquids should be used so that we remain disease-free.”

Don’t misunderstand me.

I don’t want COVID to come back.

But if there is one industry that benefited the most from COVID, it was cleaning.

And within cleaning, laundry.

I have seen that shoes are also cleaned.

Everything is there.

You need laundry, dry cleaning, bags, shoes.

Whatever is dirty inside your house—sofa, carpet, clothes, shoes, bags—we clean all of it.

Great, great.

From “Dhobi” to a Badge of Honor

So, your mother had the dream that you would travel in a car with a red beacon.

What is her reaction now?

Now she is happy.

Actually, she gets the most happiness from such things.

When she sees me on TV or on a podcast, she becomes very happy.

Now she has also learned how to use Facebook and so on.

She understands that if one post has 500 likes and another has 50 likes, the one with 500 likes is a very good post.

So now she feels very proud.

She especially watches my videos.

She hardly ever goes to the store.

But online, she is always on Facebook and YouTube watching videos.

And the thought you had about the “dhobi” tag—is it still there?

Do you still hear people saying such things?

I wear it as a badge of honor.

Even today, look at the news and you will see terms like ATM Dhobi, Bihari Laundry Wala, Bihari Dhobi.

For me, that is a badge of honor.

I am very proud of them.

But in society, even today, you will see that “dhobi” is not a very respected word.

Acceptance has increased.

Ten years ago, there was probably less acceptance.

People absolutely did not want to start a laundry business.

They did not want to enter this business.

But even today, there are some people who meet us.

They are convinced that the idea is very good, strong and has cash flow.

But they don’t start only because they think:

“What will society say?”

We also have franchise partners who have clearly requested us:

“We are starting this, but please keep it confidential.”

“The market should not know that we have started the Mumbai operation.”

Even today, there are many such people.

I won’t name cities, but even in cities like Mumbai, some of our franchise partners have explicitly said:

“We are doing this business, but there is one condition.”

“You cannot put our photographs anywhere.”

“You cannot tell anyone.”

“Don’t send anyone to our store for feedback.”

“Our name should not be disclosed.”

Did UClean Raise Funding?

Now that your company has become so big, did you ever raise funding?

We did in the beginning.

I would say it was out of peer pressure.

IIT Bombay startups raise a lot of funds.

Bhavish Aggarwal was raising a lot of funding at that time.

He was your batchmate?

Yes.

So at that time, we raised initial funding from multiple people.

Some were HNIs.

Bollywood celebrities like Soha Ali Khan and Kunal Khemu.

Companies like Franchise India and Times of India.

We raised funding from these people in 2018.

But very fortunately, after that we never needed it.

We have been a profitable company throughout all financial years except during COVID.

How Soha Ali Khan and Kunal Khemu Became Investors

You said you raised initial investment from Soha Ali Khan and Kunal Khemu.

How did that become possible?

How did you reach out to them?

In fact, when the brand was around one year old, we were running three stores in Delhi NCR.

We had set up all the systems.

We had made the manuals.

Then we decided that now we should franchise this business.

The decision was easy because franchising is something I understand.

But when we entered the market, we realized that people liked the idea.

People thought there was potential.

But nobody wanted to be the guinea pig.

You had only three stores and you expected someone to invest ₹15–20 lakh based on what you were saying.

We received a lot of rejection.

I met 60–70 investors.

I went to their homes and gave presentations.

But eventually, everyone refused.

Then we thought:

“What works in India?”

One is cricket.

Second is Bollywood.

Third is politics.

We wanted to stay away from politics.

So we decided that somehow we had to onboard a cricketer or Bollywood actor.

We started reaching out to celebrity managers.

We found their email IDs.

There was no significant response.

So what did we do?

We spread it in the market that UClean had raised ₹100 crore in funding.

As soon as this news came out, all the celebrity managers started coming back.

“Okay, okay. We spoke to you.”

“Okay, if you want, we can have a meeting.”

In this process, Soha Ali Khan and Kunal Khemu’s manager reached out to us.

They said Soha Ali Khan was interested.

Her house was in Khar.

They said:

“Come to Khar, Mumbai and meet her.”

I went there.

Soha was there.

Kunal was there.

In fact, Sharmila ma’am was also there.

They started talking.

Soha told me:

“I lived in Oxford for seven years.”

“I studied at LSE.”

“I always did my own laundry there.”

“So I always wondered why nobody starts this in India.”

“So I am very happy that someone wants to start it in India.”

I said:

“Please come onboard. We will grow this.”

She said:

“Yes, all the commercial terms and everything can be discussed by our managers.”

“You make the payments and we can start.”

I said:

“There is one problem.”

“I cannot make the payment right now.”

They said:

“But you said you had raised funding.”

I said:

“Yes, funding has been raised. It is coming.”

Okay.

I don’t know to this day what Soha Ali Khan and Kunal Khemu found so convincing.

But we agreed on a model.

When the funding came, we would pay them.

But as stores opened, a part of the franchise fee from every store would go to them.

And I committed that whatever they were asking us in terms of sponsorship fees, they could take it in equity in the company.

In return, they would also get a better payout.

To this day, I don’t exactly know, but I think she really liked the idea that someone wanted to do this in India.

Once she came onboard, we changed the story a little.

We started saying in the market:

“Soha Ali Khan has started a new laundry brand called UClean.”

As soon as this news spread in the market, literally our website crashed within two days.

So many people wanted to become franchisees.

And in the next three months, even after rejecting many people, we had around 30 franchises.

So Soha Ali Khan wanted to come onboard as a brand ambassador, like you would sponsor her?

Yes.

But you onboarded her as a partner in a slightly different way?

Yes, slightly differently.

Great, great.

How much equity did you give her?

I cannot disclose that.

And how much funding did you raise?

At that time, we raised ₹9 crore.

What valuation was it at?

Around ₹35 crore.

How Big Is the Laundry Market in India?

If we talk about the size of the laundry market in India, the ways of valuing the laundry market can be multiple.

If you look at it, Indian Railways’ laundry alone would be around a $1 billion laundry business.

Indian Railways uses so much laundry.

Or take airline laundry.

So B2B business is very large in India.

I would say B2B should be close to 25–30 billion.

So do these people also outsource or do they have their own setup?

There is a lot of tendering in this.

What happens is that many organizations, such as Railways, already have laundry setups where heavy machines are installed.

Generally, after tendering, they give it on a build-operate model.

The setup is already built.

You become the operator and run it.

In some places, fresh setups also come.

For example, if Indian Railways is setting up something at a new location and needs a fresh setup, then they may give you both machines and operations.

But without exception, everything works through tendering.

Arunabh Sinha’s Daily Routine

If we talk about your daily routine, what does it look like?

Right now, I travel a lot because international is new for us.

I am personally overseeing it.

Domestically, things are running well.

We have a very good team.

A system has been established.

But we are still understanding international operations.

So for me, it is very important to stay close to the ground so that I understand what challenges are going to come internationally and how they can be solved.

For example, I am going to Colombo on Monday.

We have a very big mega-store launch.

My international travel is currently almost 15 days a month.

But when I am at home, I generally go to the office at 9:30–10:00 AM.

And by 6:30 PM, I definitely come home because my daughter comes home from school at 4:00 PM.

She studies a little and is free by around 6–7 PM.

So I spend a lot of time with her.

Also Read: How a 21-Year-Old Built a Digital Marketing Agency and Earns ₹7–8 Lakh Per Month

Underrated Business Ideas in India

You have spent so much time in business now.

What do you think are some other underrated businesses in India that people can try?

I have a lot of belief in the atta mill business.

I actually think—and I am very sure someone will build this—that because we are becoming more health conscious now.

People are starting to consider wheat as gluten.

And gluten is also a health issue.

A lot of people have issues with it.

So people are moving towards bajra, towards millet, towards healthy grains.

People are making mixes.

I genuinely feel that the mill business, which was very popular at one time, when our fathers used to take wheat to the mill, get it ground and bring it home—I feel that time has come back.

You can create small micro mills.

Like a UClean neighborhood model, where you can give people options.

“I will mix jowar with this.”

“I can give you wheat.”

“I can mix wheat.”

And after that, you can build an app or use technology and give customers the option of home delivery.

I genuinely feel that there is a lot of potential.

In Delhi, you will see that people are not comfortable with branded atta.

Branded products are also being exposed.

Food and beverage products are changing.

I think it is a matter of time.

I have seen one or two places where someone has started this in Lucknow.

I don’t think they have expanded much yet.

But I genuinely feel that if I had time, I would actually try it.

Okay.

What other businesses are you seeing?

Why Cafes Could Be a Growing Business

There is potential in cafes.

I am very interested in cafes.

We are also launching something because I think that in India, tea has always been our traditional drink.

Tea, which we drink, has been the mainstream beverage.

Yes, mainstream beverage has been tea.

But if you look at the last four or five years, coffee consumption has increased.

And the Gen Z and the upcoming Gen Alpha and Beta generations are liking matcha, coffee, umami and such drinks.

So I think India is reaching where China was 10 years ago.

In China today, there are coffee brands where every single coffee brand has more than 10,000 outlets.

There is a brand called Luckin Coffee, which today has surpassed Starbucks.

It started seven years ago.

Today it has 300 cafes.

I have also heard that it opens right next to Starbucks.

So I think that time is also coming in India.

While it will still take time for India to reach China’s level of consumerism, I feel that you can already see cafes becoming popular in India.

Changes are happening.

So I also think that small cafes on a grab-and-go model should work very well.

Low-Investment Business Ideas for 2026

If we talk about low-investment business ideas, what would you suggest that requires less money and can be started in 2026?

I think something like the home-cleaning business.

For example, to clean a sofa or carpet, you don’t need a very expensive machine.

If you want to clean sofas and carpets, you need a machine costing hardly 20–25–300, and you need around ₹5,000 for initial detergents and chemicals.

You need a team of one or two people.

The margin in this business is very high because once you have invested in the asset, your operating expense is basically just manpower moving from one place to another on a bike or van.

The rest of what you charge has a margin as high as 95%.

What expense do you have?

You only need detergent.

If you charge ₹200 to clean a sofa, the chemicals hardly cost more than ₹10.

So this is a very good business that you can start with hardly ₹40–50 thousand.

The only challenge is that you have to manage manpower.

There are now many startups that promise 10-minute or 15-minute delivery.

These are all different startups.

Any startup that makes your life more convenient has its time.

Zepto—what is it?

It is not a grocery startup.

It is a convenience startup.

Blinkit is a convenience startup.

How to Overcome the Fear of Business Failure

I have seen that before starting any business, there is always a fear in the mind:

“What if I fail?”

And this comes into the mind of every middle-class person.

How can we overcome this?

Did this thought come to your mind when you started?

It did come to my mind.

But I had a very simple philosophy.

I still have it today.

We have come from where we came from.

I come from a very humble lower-middle-class background.

So I know that no matter how wrong things go or how bad things become, we will always end up above where we started.

So I don’t have that fear.

Because I have seen very tough times.

I know that things cannot become much tougher than that.

At most, we will go back to where we started.

For me, that is an inspiration.

I think that is why I don’t feel scared.

I am a little stubborn.

If I feel like doing something, I do it without even weighing the pros and cons.

So I feel that it is a very genuine fear.

Whenever you try something new, you are investing money.

If it doesn’t work, that fear will always remain.

And the only thing I can say is that if you are fully convinced, one thing has to be very clear:

Entrepreneurship is not for the short term. It is a long haul.

You don’t know when you will take the first money home.

The business plan in Excel may say that you will take money home in three months or six months.

But you know that Excel and the real world are very different.

It may take you 12 months.

It may take two years.

So mentally, you should be prepared for it.

And you should try to prepare your family for it.

Because when your family worries or your family worries you, that becomes the most difficult thing.

Then problems begin.

Correct.

And it also happens that until your business starts running, you don’t get that respect.

Absolutely.

And you don’t get it from society.

So it feels very bad for your parents or your immediate family.

Three Pieces of Advice for Young Entrepreneurs

So sir, thank you so much.

You shared a lot of things.

A lot of insights from which I think people will also learn a lot.

I would like to ask you, sir, before you leave, if you had to give three pieces of advice to your younger self—if you had to give advice to 18-year-old Arunabh—what would they be?

There is a series called Sapne vs Everyone.

Yes.

The second season.

In it, there is a line:

“Umar bhar khayali bhooton se jo na main darta,
Ae Khuda kya zor se jeeta, ae Khuda kya chain se marta.”

That has become the philosophy of my life.

Actually, we are very afraid of imaginary ghosts.

“What will happen?”

“What if?”

“What now?”

So I genuinely feel that if we remove these imaginary ghosts and become a little more fearless, we can actually live very well and die peacefully.

So for me, that is the biggest learning.

I heard this recently, three or four years ago.

But I like this dialogue from Sapne vs Everyone so much that I genuinely tell everyone:

Believe in this.

Put it in your mind.

Accept it.

Don’t Become a Founder for Social Media Validation

And what is the second?

Today we live in a social media world.

And nobody knows it better than me.

We have developed a very big complex of peer validation.

For example, you write on LinkedIn:

“I am a founder.”

Suddenly you start receiving peer validation.

“Wow, what a decision.”

“Congratulations.”

“Good luck.”

“Everything.”

So the glamour at the beginning is very attractive.

But only a founder knows that once that glamorous period is over, once you start scratching the surface, you realize that life is not easy.

The only thing I will always say is:

Don’t become a founder for LinkedIn.

Don’t become a founder for Instagram.

Because in the beginning everything will look very good.

But when you actually start running, you will realize that it is not easy for an entrepreneur.

If you are not mentally prepared, don’t do it for the sake of LinkedIn.

You are wasting your own time, your money and your family’s time.

Life Is Not an Excel Sheet

One more thing.

I would say that Excel will teach you a lot.

You can do a lot of modeling.

You can build a business model.

But you have to be prepared for one thing:

Life is not an Excel sheet.

Life will give you the kind of surprises that you can never be prepared for.

So at that time, stepping back or getting scared will not make sense.

But don’t obsess over the idea.

And never think that your idea is unique.

Someone somewhere in the world is already working on it.

It is execution that is going to matter.

So if you can execute, no idea is bad.

I genuinely believe that no idea is bad.

It is always a bad entrepreneur.

You didn’t execute it and then you said the idea was bad.

And when you pitched the managers, what were you pitching them for?

To become partners or—

No, to create the face.

To create the face.

What Does Being Rich Mean to Arunabh Sinha?

One more thing I want to ask.

What is your definition of rich?

My definition of rich?

For me, genuinely, it is:

How much peaceful time can I spend with my daughter?

If I cannot do that, I am not rich.

Great, sir.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Satish.

Final Thoughts

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