100X.VC backed honc, a tech-first company for car washes at the doorstep, has raised $400k in a pre-Seed round, from Amey Mashelkar (Head of JioGenNext), Dr. Raghunath A Mashelkar (Independent Director at RIL), Jasminder Singh Gulati (Co-founder at NowFloats), Dholakia Ventures, Nilesh Patel (Leadership team, Cisco systems) and 100X.VC.
The company parts of the Class 06 batch, will use the funds to expand its partner network across Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Gurugram in the next 12 months. honc thinks to upgrade its tech stack to scale across gated communities and business parks using location intelligence and user review systems.
“While car wash in India has an annual spend of $12 billion, it’s still in the early stages of its digital transformation. The fund infusion is a testament to investor's confidence in the rising demand for a doorstep solution. In the last year, we were able to add over 200 partners to our network. We carry out 4,000 car washes per day in Hyderabad alone. We aim to make the traditional car wash industry efficient, environmentally friendly, and a customer-centric one”, said Niranjan Seelam, Co-founder & CEO of honc.
The company will further deploy capital to supercharge the onboarding, training, and security of partners on the platform.
The startup founded in 2020, honc with its managed marketplace model has been playing an important role in the car wash industry of India, which is largely unorganized and underserved. The company provides an on-demand, mobile-first doorstep solution that meets the intuitive needs of car owners with a curated selection of trusted and trusted partners.
With the increasing demand for doorstep services, Honc has recently signed agreements with Corporate/IT Parks in three cities of India in line with its expansion plans.
“With our technology and process interventions, we simplified the onboarding and training processes for our partners. We are also introducing women into the wash segment across business parks. We believe this will untap the large blue collar workforce segment”, said, Rahul Marwar, Co-founder & Director of Sales, honc.
The company has enabled its partners to increase their monthly income by 100% in the last six months. In addition, honc’s eco-friendly wash has helped save around 1,50,000 liters of water every month in gated communities.
“We all struggle to keep our cars clean every day. The existing options are broken, leaving car owners dissatisfied with bitter experiences. With its tech-first approach, honc made it efficient and simplified the whole process of keeping our cars clean. Car wash being the everyday touchpoint in the car owner’s mind, we believe honc is well poised to play a bigger role in scaling to other services as well,” said Ninad Karpe, Partner at 100X.VC.
“Today’s fundraise reflects the strength of honc’s business model, execution capabilities, and the incredible opportunity ahead. The past year steered in a new normal, changing people’s perspective of car wash at the doorstep. After understanding our consumer behaviour we tend to bring in many customized updates to our app. Our mission is to deliver car services to every doorstep in India,” said Viraji, Co-founder & Product Owner, honc.