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Hello reader,
A few weeks ago, one of my family members got infected with Covid-19. It wasn’t really anything to panic about though, and we all went through self-quarantine. Thankfully, the rest of us didn’t catch it, but there was some anxiety even after he tested negative.
One of our biggest concerns was that even though he was supposedly in the clear, we weren’t really sure whether our house was actually clean and safe. To ensure that we did it properly, my mum hired a cleaning service to disinfect the house.
In today’s story, we explore how a Singapore-based company is seeking to alleviate such doubts through tech. SmartClean Technologies is now looking to raise US$15 million in a series A round. Will it succeed? Perhaps its journey to get to this point could tell us a thing or two.
Today we look at:
- SmartClean Technologies’ journey into the cleaning industry.
- A new VC arm from a DeFi firm based in Singapore
- Other newsy highlights, such as new funds for ASTAR’s healthtech startup and workspace platform Atlan
Premium summary
The clue is in the name
Image credit: Timmy Loen
SmartClean Technologies is a B2B cleaning automation startup, and it’s looking to raise US$12 million in equity and US$3 million in venture debt funding. Founded in 2017, the firm provides artificial intelligence of things (AIoT) and SaaS cleaning management products for real estate facilities. It plans to use 60% of its new funds to add more partners to its network and expand operations overseas, while the rest will go towards hiring more staff.
- A sensible change: Two of the company’s founders, Lav Agarwal and Abhishek Mishra, initially wanted to build robotic security systems aimed at replacing human guards. However, they realized that the time and investment required to build such a product was not feasible, so they decided to pivot to sensors. Shortly after, they met their third co-founder, Stella Aw, who introduced them to the cleaning industry.
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A rough start: SmartClean had secured roughly US$3 million over three funding rounds previously, but doing so was tough as it had only developed a hardware product at the time. Less than 5% of the VCs that the startup pitched to were interested in investing, so it turned to strategic investors for capital, according to Agarwal. And following the addition of its SaaS product, the company is now seeing renewed interest from major VC firms.
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Frozen by Covid-19: Like many other businesses, SmartClean felt the impact of the pandemic. With work-from-home mandates in place, many of its clients froze their contracts. Despite this, the firm was able to grow its revenue from S$250,000 (US$183,000) in 2020 to S$1 million (US$733,000) in 2021. It is now on track to hit S$4 million (US$2.9 million) this year.
Read more: Billion-dollar market in cleaning tech? This startup is betting on it and seeking $15m
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