72 / ENTREPRENEUR.COM / August 2019“WE GOT FUNDED!”
A look into how Washmen and FineDine secured their latest fundraising wins
(and what one can expect to see from them in the future)
by PAMELLA DE LEON- Do it early “Start raising
early– and stay focused on your
business metrics throughout
the long fundraising process.
Your past performance is not
enough.” - Stay determined “Be patient,
and choose the time you invest
into each investor carefully.
Some investors have specific
investment theses, or focus on
specific industries. Other inves-
tors are generalists. Don’t take
any feedback personally, even if
it feels personal. Be self-aware
in knowing who your business
is attractive to. You also need to
be flexible in accommodating
different investors’ require-
ments, while making sure you
have harmony among your
shareholders.” - Prepare for the unknown
“Raise more than what you think
you need. Scaling your business
has a lot of unknowns– you
don’t want to be too worried,
because you need to make an
investment into something you
find out is crucial for your busi-
ness, and haven’t accounted for
it. You also want to be able to
test ideas out..”
Washmen co-founder and
CEO Rami Shaar shares
his tips for entrepreneurs
looking to raise funds for
their startups‘TREP TALK
Washmen team IMAGES COURTESY WASHMEN | FINEDINESTART IT UP STARTUP FINANCE
ProTenders platform
WASHMEN
washmen.comWashmen, a Dubai-based
startup streamlining dry
cleaning and laundry ser-
vices, has successfully raised
US$6.2 million in a Series B
round. The investment round
was led by international VC
fund AddVenture, and joined
by Germany-based chemical
and consumer goods company
Henkel, Lebanon’s Cedar
Mundi Ventures and B&Y
Partners, and the UAE’s Clara
Ventures. The new capital in-
fusion will be used to expand
the startup’s presence locally
and drive its growth.
Launched in 2015 by Rami
Shaar and Jad Halaoui,
Washmen was founded with
the intention to eliminate the
need for a washing machine
from UAE homes. The startup
kicked off its operations by
partnering with logistics
partners and high-quality
laundromat facilities to pickup, clean, iron, and deliver
laundry as fast as the next
day after it was brought in,
for a price that was at least
20-30% less than what
premium services tended
to charge. A wash and fold
service (priced per bag) was
later added to its portfolio,
thereby allowing customers to
fully outsource their laundry.
“Since that kind of opera-
tion didn’t exist in the local
market, we had to build our
own facility in order for that
offering to scale across Dubai
and Abu Dhabi with the qual-
ity and hygiene customers
expect,” co-founder and CEO
Shaar remembers.
According to Shaar, Wash-
men currently serves over
30,000 individual customers
and processes over 300,000
items a month, with two cur-
rent facilities (its latest is a
new 300,000 sq. ft. facility in
Dubai) to both wash and fold,
as well as clean and press
items. By building their ownfacilities, the co-founders
believe they have gained an
edge in their operating model:
“This allows us to better cap-
ture margins, reinvent that
into the business, and keep
prices affordable- the objec-
tive remains to replace the
need for a washing machine
at home.” And with the new
investment and investors in
and out of the region, the
co-founders are confident on
their new partners’ extensive
knowledge to help their start-
up’s scale across geographies.
“We intend on utilizing the
R&D of our partners exten-
sively, in order to improve our
quality and widen our service
offerings.” A noteworthy fea-
ture the startup also admin-
isters today is its recycling
program, wherein customers’
recyclables consisting of plas-
tic and paper waste can be
gathered in a Washmen bag,
which is then collected by the
company.
As the startup continues to
grow, Shaar says he and his
team are focused on staying
true to Washmen’s primary
offering, which is its “con-
venience, reliability, quality,
affordability, and the ease
of payment it offers,” basing
their strategy on customer
retention more than acquisi-
tion- which they admit is
a challenge that becomes
more difficult as the startup
scales. “We understand how
hard it is to acquire- losing a
customer is a waste of effort
and money. Retention is a
function of our product, andso is building a better product
that will minimize frictions
for customers, as well as
our operations.” And with a
continued goal of establishing
itself as the go-to trusted
laundry and dry cleaning
brand in the UAE, the co-
founders continue to work
on “making transparency and
quality staples of our opera-
tion and reputation.” Onward
and upward!