Get To Know Qatar's Startup Ecosystem: WASHNOW Launched in August 2015, the on-demand app WASHNOW currently has more than 200 customers in Qatar.

WASHNOW came out of an idea conceived by Ameer K. V., a young Indian entrepreneur who has been in the dry-cleaning and laundry business in Doha for nearly eight years. Mufeed Ahmed and Rahid Kader are the mentors and investors in the WASHNOW application. What is WASHNOW? "An on-demand laundry app," replies Ameer, founder and Head of Operations. "It requires a good technology company behind it, as well as a strong dry-cleaning infrastructure to deliver on time and with good quality– the three of us came as a perfect combination."

WASHNOW was launched in August, and it currently has more than 200 customers. In the weeks since its launch, the founding team have been able to enhance their delivery time from 72 hours to less than 48 hours. "Customer interactions happen everyday, different versions of WASHNOW are released on the user app as well as the business app to make the interactions and process automated," Ameer says. "This wouldn't have been possible without the support of these two tech entrepreneurs. It's a build, measure, learn process."

Interesting aside though: Ahmed and Kader –who are graduates of the 10-week Lean Startup Program by QBIC- helped develop the WASHNOW app in just 10 days. At present, WASHNOW is the only on-demand laundry service in Qatar. "This means big for expats, because it's about saving them the traffic and parking trouble," says Ameer.