Founded by a diverse team from Nairobi, New York and Lagos, with background ranging from McKinsey & co., Citigroup, Delivery.com, and other global and local firms, Kenya’s Kisafi, is an on-demand home cleaning and laundry service set to disrupt Kenya’s home cleaning and laundry industry.
‘Kisafi’ meaning it’s clean in Swahili, aims to be a convenient tech platform for instant booking of high quality, reliable laundry and home cleaning with 100% money-back satisfaction guarantee from its highly trained and background checked cleaners and state of the art cleaning and laundry equipment and highly trained staff.
Janet Otieno, who leads the Nairobi operations promises that Kisafi will offer fast delivery whenever requested, give users a peace of mind with its fully insured service for loss or damage and help save customers up to 8-12 hours or 21 days of their lives every year.
“See us as the uber for laundry and home cleaning. Our users request premium laundry pickup and drop off and low cost home cleaning services with a tap of the button via our free “Kisafi” Android app or at Kisafi.com,” Otieno tells TechMoran. “The value we bring is convenience, quality and price advantage. Compared to other laundry services that average Ksh. 2000 for 7-10 kg of laundry, we offer a flat rate “all you can fit” per bag pricing. The bags typically hold 1-2 weeks of laundry.”
Otieno says the in addition to its laundry services, Kisafi provides low-cost home cleaning services from vetted, experienced cleaning professionals for as low as Ksh. 750.
Kisafi is now using digital channels to attract early tech adopters; while for cleaners it has partnered with a reputable local recruiting agency that will be a feeder for folks looking to work with them on a contract basis. Kisafi retains the quality control and training while providing income for the average Nairobian looking to make some extra cash.
Kisafi came into being after the founders suffered a similar problem.
“The inspiration came in 2015, when our founders were living here temporarily, in a rented flat, and couldn’t find laundry services without going through hoops or paying an arm and a leg. Such services are commonplace in their countries of origin with startups like flycleaners, handy and washio who provide similar services seamlessly,” Otieno told TechMoran.
Otieno adds that with platforms like Jumia, Hellofood and Uber in Nairobi, the on-demand economy is here to stay and they can drive this trend using technology to help the every day citizen easily get through their day.
At the moment, the Nairobi-based firm is self-funded but is open to investments in the low to mid 6 – figures USD. It’s initial coverage areas will be Westlands, Kilimani/ Kileleshwa, Lavington, CBD and environs; then expand to broader Nairobi and Mombasa before Q4. Other cities in the East African region are also on their radar. Meaning they have to compete Uganda’s Yoza.
In Kenya, Dobi seems not to have cracked any significant market share and apart from its Swahili name, it’s not even known.
Otieno says social media to them is the digital equivalent of word of mouth marketing and this is driven by mind-blowing quality and service delivery. Our service will be amazing and we want our friends to tell their friends about it!
Though she thinks there is a lot of hype in the Kenyan tech ecosystem, to them technology is meant to solve humanity’s everyday problems big and small.
“We are focused on the small things…but like Maslow’s law we need to solve for food, shelter and clothing before progressing to higher issues. Hellofood/ foodpanda guys are taking care of food, we’ll help with shelter and clothing,”Otieno concludes.
Other players in this sector include Nigeria’s Washist, Kleen, and Washly. In South Africa, we have Washr and SweepSouth, which is into house cleaning mostly.
