Wassup eyeing $15 mn funds; gets $2 mn from Jabong co-founders

On-demand laundry service provider Wassup is looking at raising USD 10-15 million in the next 8-12 months as it expands its services across major cities in the country.
The Chennai-based start up, which has already raised USD 2 million from Jabong co-founders Arun Chandra Mohan and Praveen Sinha (as individual investors), will sell up to 30 per cent of the company's stake in the upcoming series A funding.
"The investment by Arun and Praveen is a pre-series A investment and we are looking at raising USD 10-15 million (including the one from Sinha and Mohan) in the next 8-12 months. This will lead to a dilution of about 30 per cent stake," Wassup co-founder and CEO Balachandar R told PTI.

He added that Jabong co-founders will be associated with the company in an advisory role.
"We are looking to service the daily laundry requirements of middle class Indian consumers which is currently being addressed by a maid servant or by self-wash.
"About 95 per cent of the market is still unorganised and there is a huge potential to move that to organised online route," he said.

Balachandar added that the organised market is worth Rs 5,400 crore, while the total opportunity in the Indian laundry industry is about Rs 2 lakh crore.
Wassup currently offers services in Bangalore, Delhi and Chennai in a managed marketplace model and will add Pune and Cochin in the coming months.

"The intent is to be present in about 100 cities in the next three years. We will also add personal care, home care, car care, pet care and handyman services to the portfolio through our technology platform in the near future," he said.
Founded in 2011, Wassup has about 100 employees and expects the number to grow to 5,000 people in the next three years.
It has been working with enterprise customers across aviation and hospitality sectors and has a revenue run rate of about USD one million.
"From the B2C (business to customer) offering, we expect to see Rs 30-40 crore coming in the next 12 months. We have about 50,000 customers already and we expect to see this grow to one million in the same time," Wassup co-founder and Managing Director Durga Das said.