Success Story Of Arunabh Sinha: The 'IIT-Laundrywala' Who Built a Rs 100 Crore Business Empire (2024)

UClean currently provides door-step laundry service where customers can place their order using a smartphone app, or by dialing up the UClean call center number, via the UClean whatsapp bot or by just dropping off and picking up their laundry at stores.

New Delhi: UClean, a laundry startup, was started in 2016 in Delhi-NCR with local dry cleaners, and in just over three years, it has expanded in various cities and is currently catering to about 3000 plus orders on a daily basis, according to various media reports. The first of its kind and largest laundry and dry-cleaning chain in India, UClean, was founded in 2016. It is a brainchild of an IITian from Mumbai, who made a 100 Crores company just by washing the dirty linen.

Hailing from a middle-class family in a village near Jamshedpur, Arunabh Sinha joined with his wife Gunjan Taneja and founded UClean with an initial investment of just 20 lakh.

In a mere six years, UClean has achieved a turnover of Rs 100 crore and expanded into a 323-store network spread across 93 cities, including Delhi, Chandigarh, Bengaluru, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Kochi, among others. With 27 outlets, Delhi is its strongest territory.

The company, reportedly is also gearing up to launch in international markets, including Bangladesh and Nepal, by the end of October and in Malaysia and Thailand by the end of this year.

Who is Arunabh Sinha

• Arunabh Sinha, an IIT Bombay alumnus started UClean in Delhi in October 2016, and today it is the biggest laundry chain in India with a presence in almost 100 cities.
• Arunabh grew up in Dimna village, 10 km from Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, with a homemaker mother and a father who worked as an assistant at MGM Medical College in Jamshedpur.
• The middle child and only son among three siblings, Arunabh and his family lived in a two-room government quarter on the medical college campus in Dimna, an area now developed within Jamshedpur.
• He did his masters in Metallurgy and Materials Science from IIT Bombay.
• He received job offers from Tata Steel and a US-based pharmacy company, ZS Associates. While Tata Steel offered him an annual salary of Rs 4.5 lakh, ZS Associates offered him Rs. 8.9 lakh.
• He started his career by working with ZS Associates in Pune as an analytical associate in 2008.
• He later joined a non-profit organisation that was working with grassroots-level farmers and connecting then with various brands.
• It is during these days Sinha picked up his first startup lessons and in 2011 he founded Franglobal, a business consulting firm dedicated to assisting foreign brands in India.
• After selling his business to Franchise India, Sinha ventured into the hospitality sector in 2015 and was hired by Treebo Hotels as the director of North India.
• It was during this time Sinha noticed that one of the biggest complaints guests had were the dirty cloths, stains on their bedding etc.
• After some market and product research Sinha started UClean in Delhi NCR in January 2017.
• By the end of 2017, UClean started working franchises in Hyderabad and Pune, which has now grown into more than 350 stores in 104 cities across the country.
• According to him, one of the biggest features that make UClean stand out is laundry by the kilo which costs between Rs 80 and Rs 180 per kg depending on the city.
• Gunjan and Arunabh live in Chambud village, very close to South Delhi. Arunabh’s parents live with them.

The company’s headquarters is situated in a 3,500 sq ft office in Faridabad. They maintain a workforce of around 60 full-time employees, along with 1,400 personnel on the payrolls of their franchise partners.

UClean currently provides door-step laundry service where customers can place their order using a smartphone app, or by dialing up the UClean call center number, via the UClean whatsapp bot or by just dropping off and picking up their laundry at stores.

Users of UClean can also do their own laundry in a few stores, like the DIY (Do It Yourself) format which is prevalent in US and Europe.