In December last year, four entrepreneurs from Nairobi, Lagos, New York and Kampala came together to start Kisafi Laundry Services, a laundry services business. The four were brought together by their struggles in getting trustworthy Mama Nguo or cleaning services men and women after renting apartments in Nairobi.
“We were all in businesses that required a lot of traveling, and usually relied on hotel services. This changed when we moved to apartments and started looking for trustworthy laundrymen,” says Janet Otieno, who manages Kisafi Kenya.
However, although the four founders struggled with laundry, they did not start their business without carrying out enough research. “We carried out research and asked people around what their experiences with casual laundrymen were. We found out that nearly everyone was in the same struggle and felt that opening a business in laundry would do well,” she says. Additionally, having worked at leading global firms like Mckinsey, CitiGroup, and delivery.com, they were confident that their business would break even fast.
In December 2015, the four incorporated Kisafi and started offering laundry services to friends, families and neighbours within Nairobi.
Four months later, in April 2016, they got funding from angel investors and started offering public cleaning services. “It has been nearly three months since we went public, and we are happy that our revenues are currently superseding our costs.” Interestingly, their services are cheap, with laundry costing Sh. 400 for a two-week period.
However, the founders are yet to start reaping the fruits of their business as they continue to invest profits and inject additional capital into the business. “We are still investing in technology, marketing, expansion, and logistics to ensure that our services are the top layer in the laundry industry.” Within the two and a half months, Kisafi has signed up to 20 laundry workers with expertise in hospitality.
Nonetheless, like any other start-up business, Kisafi has had its share of challenges. Janet singles out talent and customer awareness as their two main challenges.
“It is not common to find people who are experts in offering laundry services. Many think that laundry services can only be offered by mama fua or the uneducated, but this is not true,” she says, adding that every two weeks, Kisafi will interviews between 15 to 20 laundrymen and marketing officials.
Although Kisafi remains a young company, Ms. Otineo says the sky is their only limit. “From the feedback we are getting from our customers, we are convinced that this is a business destined for success,” she says. “However, we cannot attain this success if don’t remain true to our core values which demand us to provide our customers with value, trust, and good cleaning services for their money.”
Bizna readers within can get laundry services from Kisafi at only Sh. 400 for two weeks. To get these services, call Kisafi on: 0714 078 200. You can also view Kisafi’s website at:kisafi.com