e-commerce
Jabong founders invest $2 million in laundry services start-up Wassup
MUMBAI: Chennai based on-demand convenience brand Wassup, has raised $2 million from Jabong founders Arun Chandra and Praveen Sinha.
Wassup, which is co-founded by Balachandar.R and Durga Das, will continue to offer on-demand expediency services as well as expand focus on marketing and customer acquisition activities in Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi and also add two more cities Pune and Cochin to their market presence.
The brand currently offers services like laundry, dry cleaning, shoes and bag refurbishments in the above mentioned cities. For the consumer’s convenience, the company has about 30 pickup points called “Aggregating Hubs”. The company is adding 30 more hubs in the next 6 months. In the next three years, the brand intends to be in 100 cities with a customer base of 1 million.
Globally, the industry is estimated to be at $9 billion, while the laundry market is estimated to be valued at INR 200,000 crore annually, 95% of which is the unorganized market.
Wassup co-founder and CEO Balachandar R said, “We are looking to service the daily laundry requirements of middle class Indian consumers, which is currently being addressed by a maid servant or by self-wash. The potential to move unorganized offline business to organized online convenience is huge. We are seeing a good opportunity and want to be the market leaders in the segment in India and are happy to have Arun and Praveen onboard with us on this journey to be the leading brand in convenience services. We will be adding additional interesting convenience services in the near future.”
Wassup co-founder and managing director Durga Das, who has 20 years of Silicon Valley experience behind her, added, “Technology is going to be the true enabler, which will foster customer delight. We have built a technology platform that integrates the consumer app, point of sale, tagging and tracking system and the CRM solution. Additionally, we are adding analytics, a marketing performance platform and an efficient logistics management to ensure the customer gets an unrivalled experience in convenience. Mobile is going to be central to our tech development.”
Jabong’s Mohan and Sinha said, “The on-demand convenience industry is revolutionizing commercial behaviour in cities around the world and the growth of the industry in India is exponential given the perennial growth in the per-capita of the country. The consumer behaviour is witnessing a steady change and this is the best time to contribute in the same. We are elated to be a part of this riveting market opportunity like Wassup. It has immense potential to become a catalyst in the evolution of consumer behaviour. We have bestowed our complete trust upon the model and would lend out the desired support to the co-founders for a hindrance-free growth.”
The company’s expansion plans include adding the personal care, home care, car care, pet care and handyman services to their portfolio.
e-commerce
Instamart and Duolingo launch street spell check campaign for Instaprint
Duo the owl fixes signboard typos across cities to showcase instant printing.
MUMBAI: If spelling mistakes had a sworn enemy, it might just be a bright green owl with a printer. Instamart has teamed up with language learning platform Duolingo for a quirky nationwide campaign that turns everyday spelling errors into a public spectacle while promoting its instant printing service, InstaPrint. The playful activation takes aim at the many misspelled shop boards and public signs scattered across Indian streets. From “saloons” that promise haircuts rather than drinks to menus and posters peppered with punctuation mishaps, the campaign sends Duolingo’s mascot Duo on a mission to restore linguistic order.
Armed with Instamart’s instant printing feature, Duo prints corrected versions of the mistakes on the spot and pastes them over the originals. The result is a series of humorous street interventions that have quickly begun circulating on social media.
Photos and videos of the grammar correcting owl have been widely shared online, with amused users reacting to the unexpected spell check patrol. One user joked, “Ab ayega na maza bhidu,” capturing the internet’s delight at the unusual campaign.
Behind the humour lies a practical message. The activation is designed to showcase the capabilities of Instaprint, Instamart’s printing service that allows users to print documents and posters almost instantly.
The company says the feature is meant for everyday needs such as printing resumes, visa documents or last minute posters without the usual scramble to locate a print shop.
Instamart introduced Instaprint in 2025 across select metropolitan cities including Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi. The service allows users to order printed materials directly through the platform, extending the quick commerce model beyond groceries and household essentials.
By combining Duolingo’s famously persistent owl with India’s street level spelling quirks, the campaign taps into the internet’s long running fascination with grammar mistakes while demonstrating a real world use case for instant printing.
After all, in a world full of typos, sometimes what you really need is a quick printer and a very determined language teacher.
