Brother-Sister Duo From Delhi Start A Spinny-like Startup For Refurbished Fridges, Washing Machines, ACs – Serve 5,000+ Customers In 1 Year

In India, a refrigerator or washing machine isn’t a luxury — it’s a lifeline for a functional home. Yet, shockingly, millions of households can’t afford to buy new ones.

Only one in three Indian homes owns a fridge, and fewer than 15% have a washing machine, leaving the rest to rely on hand‑washing or irregular storage solutions.

For families hoping to save, the fallback is the unorganized second‑hand market — dusty local shops where appliances are stacked like scrap, sold with no paperwork, no warranty, and no one to call if it fails the next day.

On the other hand, if you want a refurbished phone? There’s Cashify.

A second-hand, used car? Spinny or Cars24.

A pre-owned laptop? ReNew IT or New Jaisa.

But if you ever decide to buy a refurbished or used washing machine, television, or even a refrigerator, for that matter? All hell breaks loose.

“We wanted to fix that. Everyone deserves to feel like a customer who can trust the seller and have a fair chance at owning what they need.” Sachin Bansal, co-founder of Costify, tells Startup Pedia in an exclusive interview.

“We decided to launch Costify and enter the resale market of India, but for home appliances and devices. This category has, for the longest time, remained untouched and unorganized. It needs structure,” adds Ashlin Bansal, co-founder of Costify.

Founded in 2022 by siblings Sachit Bansal and Ashlin Bansal, Costify is a New Delhi-based startup that operates in the realm of refurbished appliances.

But what is refurbishment? Simple – it is the process of restoring old, defected, or used products to a good, functional, or new-like condition.

In 2024 alone, the refurbishment venture has served over 5,000 customers and built a scalable, tech-driven model that offers customers trust, savings, warranties, and after-sales support.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Costify’s story began in 2021 with Rajesh Bansal, a serial entrepreneur from New Delhi.

Over the years, Rajesh had built major businesses in mining, real estate, hospitality, and exports.

But during the COVID-19 pandemic, everything became unsteady and came to a halt. So he pivoted to supplying fruits and vegetables to quick commerce platforms such as Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy.

“During this phase, our father was offered a lot of deep freezers and visi-coolers from Blinkit’s dark store project. They were replacing their dark stores with cold stores. With 600 commercial fridges in hand, he decided to sell them,”Ashlin Bansal shares with Startup Pedia.

It was an unexpected side hustle that Rajesh Bansal had started – and it was just enough to pay the bills.

He used second-hand platforms like OLX to sell these fridges. Eventually, he began sourcing more products like open-box or cosmetically damaged refrigerators, washing machines, and air conditioners.

Around the same time, his daughter, Ashlin Bansal, had returned to India after finishing her B.Com degree at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.

“I started spending time in my father's warehouse and noticed something: the refurbishment model he was dabbling in wasn't polished. But it had demand,” Ashlin Bansal tells Startup Pedia.

Next, she went neck-deep into research around the home appliance refurbishment industry.

Her primary discoveries?

This was a part of the $10 billion refurbishment space that no one was looking to structure.

• If trust was instilled, it had tangible potential to generate larger demand. 

• “When affordability and trust align, that’s when these markets unlock mass adoption at scale — exactly the story we’ve seen with cars and smartphones,” Ashlin says.

At the time, Ashlin’s brother, Sachit Bansal, was working in Canada in a senior banking role. Just like Ashlin, he is also a graduate of the Rotman School of Management in Toronto.

“I had a steady corporate career in Canada, but I was craving work that felt tangible and purposeful. Costify was exactly that. Quitting and coming back to India felt less like a leap and more like the obvious next step,” Sachit says.

Very soon, Ashlin and Sachit decided to build Costify under the mentorship of their father, Rajesh Bansal.

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JOURNEY AND CHALLENGES

When entrepreneurs Ashlin Bansal and Sachit Bansal started building Costify, they knew they could follow the precedent the refurbishment industry had set in the realm of cars and electronic devices like phones and laptops.

“For us, the playbook was clear: organize the chaos, build trust, and the market explodes,” Sachit remarks.

The sibling duo pooled an amount of Rs 1 crore from their savings to bootstrap the venture.

They purchased a bulk of company-second appliances like refrigerators and washing machines.

The immediate step was to refurbish them in a way that they can be used again, in a reliable sense.

Not veterans, but ITI freshers

One of their biggest challenges was to dismantle the concept of “jugaad.” In the refurbishment industry, a lot of technicians rely on quick fixes that are temporary in nature.

“Jugaad will help you fix a fridge immediately. It'll give you the dopamine hit of a fully-functioning fridge. But…give it a few weeks and everything will come breaking down. The result? Customers lose faith in you. They complain. You justify. And the cycle continues. At Costify, we wanted to eliminate jugaad and replace it with laser precision and accuracy,” startup founder Ashlin mentions. 

So, instead of hiring veteran technicians who are conditioned to rely on shortcuts, Sachit and Ashlin decided to take in fresh ITI graduates who had curiosity and a genuine will to experiment.

“This naturally became the culture at Costify. We celebrate innovation, reward curiosity, and give paramount importance to process. Every repair is logged, analyzed, and used to refine future methods,”startup founder Sachit Bansal explains.

Hiring freshers had two three impact points: first, Costify became a company that valued new blood and fresh ideas over outdated habits. Second, it created employment opportunities for numerous individuals fresh out of college. And third, the refurbishment startup, from day one, built a philosophy of precision over patchwork.

AI‑Powered Repair: Engineering Trust and Scale

The next step for entrepreneurs Ashlin Bansal and Sachit Bansal was to focus on unmatched tech-standard consistency when it came to refining and refurbishing home appliances.

They built an in-house AI-powered repair and refurbishment process from scratch. Then, the siblings converted their warehouse (located in Delhi) into a full-fledged tech lab. This move enabled them to deliver consistent, high-quality repairs that feel “as good as new.”

“Our AI has also helped fresh, raw talent become expert technicians in a matter of weeks,” Sachit remarks.

COSTIFY: BREAKING THE SECOND-HAND STIGMA

Since its inception, Costify has served more than 8,000 customers across the Delhi-NCR region and offered them high-quality, refurbished appliances like mixer-grinders, refrigerators, air conditioners, and washing machines.

The model has now scaled into an end-to-end e-commerce platform that can be accessed by customers all over India.

Costify has taken major steps to address the trust gap that comes into play when customers buy refurbished home appliances:

The refurbishment startup has a process of smart diagnostics that catches even the faintest performance drops, from subtle cooling issues to tiny vibrations. Each unit is triple‑tested for performance.

An intelligent in-house AI system performs step-by-step mentoring that flags mistakes and guides precise fixes.

Costify refurbishes every appliance using genuine parts and real-world testing.

“Every product that leaves our warehouse and enters a customer's home, restaurant, or cloud kitchen doesn't just look new, it performs like new,” startup founder Ashlin says.

“Most people think refurbishment is just a coat of paint. For us, it’s an engineering process. Our AI model makes sure every fridge we deliver is one we’d proudly put in our own home,” entrepreneur Sachit adds.

To further enhance transparency, Costify photographs and openly displays every minor cosmetic mark on the product through their website.

The refurbishment startup backs every product with warranties extending from six to twelve months. Every appliance purchased from Costify also comes with robust after-sales support, lifetime customer service, and same-day delivery across Delhi-NCR.

“Our vision is to transform the purchase of refurbished appliances from a risky decision to a trusted, long-term choice. We even have first-time home buyers relying on us for company-second home products,” Sachit Bansal explains.

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REDUCING INDIA’S E-WASTE

Apart from offering customers an affordable, dependable choice when it comes to white goods, Costify ensures that every purchase contributes to environmental sustainability.

“India is currently the third-largest e-waste generator in the world. Large appliances are a major contributor. When you buy a factory-second or used appliance, you're directly reducing landfill pressure and manufacturing emissions,” entrepreneur Ashlin Bansal says.

The refurbishment startup founders also explain that refurbishing just one million appliances helps prevent 40,000 tonnes of e-waste.

“At Costify, we are significantly reducing waste while cutting costs. It’s not just sustainable, it’s smart business,” entrepreneur Rajesh Bansal tells Startup Pedia.

GROWTH

Bootstrapped since inception, Costify has served more than 8,000 customers across Delhi-NCR. It has sold more than 10,000 refurbished products.

The refurbishment startup has customers coming in from all spaces – first-time homebuyers, bachelors, cloud kitchens, and restaurants.

With more than 300 verified reviews, Costify's Google rating is a solid 4.5.

“We've mostly scaled organically through word-of-mouth trust and online discovery. Now our e-commerce platform is ready to serve pan-India customers with high-quality refurbished white goods,” Ashlin Bansal affirms.

Looking forward, Costify is planning to partner with investors who are interested in scaling the social and business opportunity of refurbished home goods.

“Indian households, especially large families, juggle countless daily chores like laundry, cooking, and food storage. But when cost becomes a deciding factor, many skip buying appliances that could speed up or ease the process. For instance, washing machines, refrigerators, and air conditioners. At Costify, we want to make these products truly affordable and secure, so families can take a breather and machines can do what they were designed to do. Because everyone deserves the comfort of modern living, regardless of their capacity to spend,”Ashlin Bansal signs off.

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