Introduction

Living away from home in college hostels presents a unique set of challenges for students, with food and laundry being among the most pressing. While food concerns are often acknowledged, the struggle of managing laundry is frequently overlooked despite its significant impact on students’ daily lives. Addressing this widespread issue, three engineering students founded DhobiG, a pioneering laundry startup designed to transform hostel laundry services and improve the quality of life for students across India.

The Story Behind DhobiG

The journey began in 2016 in a Chennai college hostel where founder and CEO Ravi Ranjan, alongside co-founders Daksh Sapruwal and Angur Gupta, experienced firsthand the difficulties of managing laundry. One exam night, Angur realized he had no clothes to wash, which led to anxiety and ultimately affected his academic performance.

“Laundry has always been a hidden struggle. Even if it is not a big complaint, it affects daily life greatly.”

Ravi reflected on the experience: “We wanted to know if only we felt laundry was difficult or if other students felt the same. So, we talked to other hostel students and found that most of them also saw laundry as a problem.” This realization sparked the idea to explore laundry solutions tailored to student needs.

Research and Discoveries

Delving deeper, the founders engaged with local laundry machine owners and uncovered troubling conditions. Many workers lacked access to modern technology, washed clothes manually in rivers, and faced unfair pay without proper documentation or training.

Ravi observed, “It was shocking to see that laundry workers did not have proper training or rights. We realized that laundry work was hard not just for students but for the workers too.” This dual awareness of student challenges and worker hardships shaped the startup’s vision.

How DhobiG Started

With a clear purpose, the team launched DhobiG, India’s first Laundry as a Service (LaaS) system. They experimented with various models, including direct pick-up of clothes and campus kiosks, encountering failures and learning valuable lessons along the way.

Ravi recounted, “In the beginning, we made many mistakes due to lack of experience. There was confusion in orders and money was wasted. We even thought about quitting twice. But these failures taught us valuable lessons. We found that laundry was not a service problem but a system problem.” Through persistent effort, they identified three key issues:

  • The laundry sector lacked digital systems and remained largely manual.
  • Absence of standardized operating procedures (SOPs) led to distrust and inefficiencies.
  • There was a shortage of skilled workers.

Determined to address these challenges, DhobiG sought to professionalize and organize laundry services across college campuses.

Expansion of Leadership

Alongside the original founders, Vidusha Manimaran joined DhobiG as an intern and rose to become the Chief People & Product Officer and co-founder. Her dedication to product development and human resources played a significant role in scaling the startup’s operations.

DhobiG Today: Impact and Scale

Presently, DhobiG processes about one ton of clothes daily, washing over 340,000 garments annually. The company maintains a strong reputation with minimal customer complaints and operates Asia’s first innovation center for laundry and dry cleaning (CILDC).

In collaboration with SRM IST Ramapuram since 2022, DhobiG dramatically reduced customer complaints to near zero within six months. The startup’s environmental initiatives have conserved approximately 1.4 million liters of water and limited carbon dioxide emissions to 89,000 kilograms.

Most importantly, the streamlined laundry service enables students to dedicate more time to their studies without the stress of managing laundry chores.

Skill Development and Social Impact

DhobiG’s commitment extends beyond service delivery to workforce empowerment. Partnering with the Tamil Nadu government and Tamil Nadu Skill Development Corporation, the startup launched India’s first structured skill development program for laundry workers.

This initiative provided proper training and certification, transforming over 130 traditional river laundry workers into modern laundry professionals. Recognition for these efforts includes multiple awards from Startup India Maharatna, UC Berkeley Accelerator, and IIM Bangalore in 2025.

Funding and Growth Prospects

Initially funded with ₹20 lakh from friends and family and ₹20 lakh from IIM Bangalore Innovation, DhobiG also secured a ₹1.5 crore startup loan from Indian Overseas Bank under the Startup Initiative. The company is now preparing for its first institutional funding round to expand operations across more than 50 university campuses nationwide, aiming to further refine and scale the digital laundry systems.