The vehicle enterprise in India has come an extended way. According to an IBEF document, the enterprise money owed for 7.1% of the usa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The two-wheeler section, comprising scooters and motorcycles, holds 81% of the general Indian car percentage. This phase is likewise reportedly growing at a CAGR of nine.Forty eight%. Though the numbers talk for themselves, the enterprise still lags in the back of with regards to the usage of technology. Bike owners nevertheless pick the usage of roadside garages to get their motors serviced – spending INR 200-400 for one move and losing man hours and water.
In a tech-savvy international, with the entirety available on the contact of a button, this procedure feels like medieval torture, does it not?
In stark contrast, the US already has a mechanised car and motorcycle cleansing enterprise well worth $five.Ninety seven Bn, with greater than 14,414 successful outlets. India continues to be at the threshold of choosing up in this lucrative vertical. And then there may be BikeSpa – an Israeli company – that has also synthetic a prototype cleansing carrier outfit to easy, care and hold -wheelers.
Inspired by way of BikeSpa’s model and product, Arnav Shah and Siddharth Jain sensed an opportunity to capitalise available on the market. They determined to satisfy this gap by using starting off BikeCleanse – which manufactures and operates Automated Motorbike Washing (AMW) machines to clean all sorts of motorbikes within three-four minutes on the touch of a button even as recycling as much as ninety five% of the water.
Till date, BikeCleanse has serviced over 1,00,000+ plus motorcycles and helped save over 50,00,000 litres of water, as claimed through the founder.
The Eureka Moment
It all commenced while Arnav and Siddharth whilst studying at Michigan State inside the US, could very frequently visit automobile wash chains to get their vehicle washed. On those visits, they observed that the techniques utilized by people there to wash motors have been very one of a kind and convenient. There become no guide labour worried for laundry automobiles, unlike India.
This gave them the impetus to investigate extra about the marketplace and that they realised that the Indian automobile marketplace had significant ability to be exploited. During their studies, they found that 81% of the Indian automobile market consisted of 2 wheelers – a fact corroborated via IBEF.
Bike washing changed into largely being executed at roadside shops, unauthorised garages requiring the consumer to watch for 30+ mins per bike, losing 100+ ltrs. Of water according to motorcycle, missing customer experience and so on.
“After we lower back to India in 2011, we were now not happy with our function in our own family companies. Therefore we decided to jump into our preliminary plan of launching a automobile washing startup,” says Arnav. That’s once they decided to broaden a logo aimed toward organising the country’s scattered motorcycle care market.
Naresh Talla, Manoj Geesala: Co-founders of BikeCleanse
They started their adventure in Hyderabad wherein they visited some of carrier centres and roadside garages and located that those neighborhood vendors use 50-one hundred litres of water, per motorbike, and use a hydraulic lifting device to wash significant dust – an highly-priced manner. During their studies, they met Naresh Talla and Manoj Geesala, who had been operating on the prototype of an Israeli automated bike wash machine.
Arnav and Siddharth discussed their enterprise concept with the two of them and that they each determined to come onboard as companions. After one entire 12 months of large research, in 2015, the four of them end their respective jobs and officially launched BikeCleanse.
Building An Automated Washing Machine For Two-wheelers
In the first iteration, the founders approached accepted and unauthorised dealers to undertake the product and solution, but they sooner or later grew to become their interest to their clients, adopting a B2C version. The prototype AMW system turned into tested at Hyderabad’s Manjira Mall – to get stay remarks from customers.
The gadget uses specialised nozzles placed on a conveyor belt as well as at the lowest of the showering bay. These nozzles wash most people of the motorbike, such as underneath the mudguard and rims. A factor to keep in mind, the amount of dirt/dirt/grease and so on. Might also vary on extraordinary bikes, which demands some amount of micro scrubbing prior to deciding on the perfect computerized wash cycle. With included water recycling, BikeCleanse’s AMW reputedly simplest consumes 7 litres of water in step with wash after recycling ninety five% of the water.
Not best this, they've also hooked up a water purification mechanism inside the gadget to improve the fine of the water. Their built in mechanism brings the pH (sodium) level all the way down to eight so that it doesn’t damage the motorbike’s body.
The AMW is a easy plug and play machine that calls for round one hundred sq.Feet. Of empty area to be established at a suitable location. An extra a hundred–2 hundred squarefeet. Is required to provide detailing services with the desired electricity requirement. Apart from this, the system requires a water inlet and drainage facility.
BikeCleanse’s six-month pilot challenge gained validation, as they served 18-20 bikes in line with day wherein they charged INR 150 for in step with bike. “We have evolved the generation in house at our facility in Hyderabad. We also have a patent carried out on the Automated Bike Washing process that involves recycling the water used,” says Arnav.
Today, they work on three revenue streams in the B2B and B2C segments – the franchise model wherein they provide the machine as part of the franchise to a customer seeking to begin a low cost commercial enterprise. “As part of the franchise, we additionally provide area support (thru our agreements with Indian Oil and Hindustan Petroleum), marketing aid, technology aid (through our franchise control app).”
Another model is system sales in which they sell their machines without delay to carrier centres of Original Equipment Manufacturers (Honda, Hero , TVS and so on.) who use the machines to service their bikes. And, finally organization-owned stores. “In the corporation-owned model, we own and function our personal BikeCleanse-Instant Motorbike Care stores at top places across the country.”
The cost of the AMW machine varies from $10.3K (INR 7 Lakhs)-$thirteen.9K (INR 9 Lakhs), relying on the version humans opt for. Furthermore, they also offer a free one year guarantee with an AMC to ensure safe and continuous running. Starting from a capability of two-three devices, nowadays their factory has a ability to manufacture forty-60 units a month.
The exciting element is that, aside from the OEMs, the bike care enterprise is a extraordinarily fragmented industry without a present single emblem acknowledged for bike care centres throughout India. BikeCleanse objectives to organise a part of this fragmented market through motorbike care stores.
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“The automated machines are able to offer a provider, that's better than the garages – in phrases of time (three mins Vs 25 minutes), value (INR ninety Vs INR one hundred), surroundings (7 ltrs Vs 50 litres-a hundred litres of water used), and most significantly locations (petrol pumps and department stores, allowing on-the-go services),” he provides.
Location, Location, Location: Setting Up The Manufacturing Unit
Arnav and the team’s initial demanding situations specifically revolved around manufacturing capacity and deciding on the proper vicinity to set up their warehouse. They commenced with a small workshop to test the marketplace with a capacity to build 2-three units a month. “While operating on our pilot, we received a large order from a consumer from Gujarat who ordered seven machines but didn’t have enough area to supply the requirement. And, consequently, we ended up using part of a parking lot to fulfil the order,” recollects Arnav.
This made them comprehend that they needed to pass into a larger space and consequently they went in for their seed spherical of investment, in March 2016, which was led by using Sidharth Pansari’s Primarch I Venture Advisory and others. The amount raised become INR 2 Cr and Sandeep Patni, Abhishek Agarwal, Apurv Salarpuria and Singapore Angel Network additionally participated in the spherical. “We intend to raise our Series A spherical and a few price range have also approached us however we're nevertheless at a completely initial level of discussions. We need to use maximum of this in developing sales and after sales carrier community.”
BikeCleanse isn't always the simplest player presenting fast offerings to bikers. Players like Express Bike Wash, Let’s Service, Gear6.In, Autoyaar are some other homegrown players giving tough competition to the team. But, as Arnav famous, their most important competition is unorganised, nearby garages which cater to eighty% of the countrywide, bike care market.
The startup’s principal USP, although, is water recycling. “Today, water wastage has emerge as a large trouble. Make in India, Startup India has helped positioned the focal point on groups along with ours. We are in the business of creating entrepreneurs thru our bike care franchisees at a low capital funding INR 7 Lakhs–INR 9 Lakhs.”
BikeCleanse motorbike care stores have been correctly operational in a Tier I metropolis consisting of Bengaluru and a small metropolis in Andhra such as Porumamilla. “A first-mover gain in the interiors of the us of a will help us immensely inside the coming two years as we scale throughout India,” he provides.
Tapping Into Cars And Solar Power: The Road Ahead
Run and operated by using Cleanse Solutions, BikeCleanse’s major attention is to be a pioneer in automated cleaning technologies across various verticals. “Our first awareness marketplace is motorbikes. In the future, we will be popping out with merchandise for other verticals consisting of CarCleanse in an effort to target the automobile industry and SolarCleanse as a way to goal the solar panel industry,” says Arnav.
The startup has additionally signed an settlement with petrol pump groups together with Hindustan Petroleum (HP) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). HP and the IOC function in extra than 40K+ places across India and BikeCleanse plans to faucet as a minimum 10% of those places by subsequent 12 months. “Machines have been sold to petrol pumps of IOCL and service centres/sellers of Honda, Hero and are inside the technique of receiving seller approvals at headquarter level with Bajaj, TVS, Royal Enfield, and Yamaha,” says Arnav.
The startup intends to attention on scaling throughout the united states through a mixture of franchising and business enterprise-owned centres and this may be performed thru putting in place of BikeCleanse Instant Motorbike Care stores across foremost bike populated cities of India.
Currently, having a presence in Hyderabad, Surat, Ahmedabad, and Bengaluru, the crew seems to open 50 new business enterprise-operated shops across India by way of subsequent year. Not handiest this, BikeCleanse also pursuits to release new shops in Mangalore, Coimbatore, and Visakhapatnam with the aid of year-cease.
Also, the founders are not best increasing their offerings in the Indian marketplace, but additionally tapping the international arena. Export orders to markets such as Colombia and Spain have already been received. Arnav smelled an opportunity inside the African market as human beings there play Bike Polo. BikeCleanse’s mentor and advisory, Nimisha Madhwani, the ambassador to Uganda is assisting them enlarge within the African market.
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“We aim to be in across 40 towns from the modern-day 7 cities in India and throughout 10 nations across the world via our vendors inside the next 1 12 months. Apart from that, we intend to add our new product CarCleanse within the following few quarters,” says Arnav.
Perhaps this is why, they've grown approximately 12x year-on-year general (franchise+system department) with 30+ BikeCleanse stores gift across India. In 2015-2016, their sales reportedly grown 10x. “This time we're concentrated on 3 to four instances the sales we've got made within the modern fiscal 12 months,” concludes Arnav.
Editor’s Note
Like logistics and hyperlocal startups, the automobile renovation enterprise in India is fragmented, with nearby gamers in smaller places in Tier II and III regions taking over the bulk of the marketplace proportion. With carbon footprint turning into an increasing problem in essential metropolitan towns, water scarcity too is an instantaneous situation that needs to be addressed. BikeCleanse’s AWMs provide a protracted-time period answer by way of first lowering the amount of water required to clean motorcycles and also by way of automating the process, making scale possible to accelerate increase.
Onboarding set up franchise companions including IOCL, HPCL and extra additionally way that the organization isn't trading on simplest organization-owned shops to penetrate this market and make a logo name for themselves. On the other hand, with competition from the unorganised section as well as different players such as Express Bike Wash, Let’s Service among others, and the innate infrastructural and financial desires of buying, putting in, and going for walks a BikeCleanse centre, it stays to be seen how the nascent startup plans to address capex and opex with a purpose to preserve developing as in line with the objectives the team has set for themselves.
