India’s washing machine for bikes rides on funding from iconic investor Mark Mobius

An expanding middle class, a young population, and an increasing interest in exploring the rural markets on the part of companies have made the two-wheeler segment the leader of the Indian automobile market. About 17 million new motorcycles were added to the existing lot last year throughout the country. With the ever increasing and often unpredictable loads, service centres invariably struggle to deliver bikes on time as washing becomes a major bottleneck.

India’s Entropy Innovations, a motorcycle washing product, wants to change that. Today it announced it has raised seed funding from a consortium of investors through angel network ah! Ventures. The deal size is not disclosed.

Investors who participated in the round include US-based global iconic fund manager Mark Mobius who is the executive chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets and AdvantEdge Incubator.

Clean bikes

Express Bike Wash

Entropy Innovations’ machine is called Express Bike Wash. It is a fully automatic and comprehensive bike cleaning machine that reaches and cleanses each and every part of your bike. The startup claims that it is capable of washing even the dirtiest of motorcycles within five minutes.

The startup claims to have catered to 100,000 motorcycles through its own stores and installations at service centres.

The fresh funding will be used to expand across the country. Entropy has deemed this segment lucrative enough for scaling via a franchise model. “We want to replace all manual washing centers with an automated washing machine in India. Captive areas like petrol pumps, malls, corporate parks, and societies are also potential target areas,” says Jigar Vora, co-founder of Entropy.

Vora, an electrical engineer, teamed up with batchmate Raghvendra Bhushan Karn and mechanical engineer Niraj Taksande to start Entropy about two years ago.

“In an era saturated with a deluge of IT, mobile, and cloud-app ventures, Entropy’s offering was an instant hit,” says Harshad Lahoti, founder of ah! Ventures. “The space has a large readily available addressable target market for its services. This, coupled with a competent IIT-IIM team with a clear vision to disrupt the current two-wheeler service industry dynamics, made Entropy an extremely favourable investment opportunity,” he adds.

The angel network has previously backed edu-gaming startup LogicRoots, listicle platform Bluegape, and travel marketplace iTraveller.