/startuppedia/media/media_files/2025/02/18/E4Km6iAYHPV9csnj3Boo.jpg)
SERVIZ founders Aarush Dhawan and Rajni Kant Sinha
Coming from a middle-class background, Aarush’s family thought he would become a successful engineer. However, after clearing the Engineering entrance exam, he informed his parents that his inclination was business and marketing.
In an exclusive interview with Startup Pedia, SERVIZ founder Aarush Dhawan shared how he left engineering as a career, to pursue management and then left a high-paying job to become a full-time entrepreneur.
“I cleared the engineering exam just to prove to my parents that I was capable of pursuing it,” Aarush said smilingly to Startup Pedia. “And then I told them that I wanted to pursue management as it was my forte!”
A science student’s journey to a management career
Aarush Dhawan completed his BBA and MBA and started a corporate career that made his parents proud. Working for leading brands such as Nestle, Timex, and Times of India, gave Aarush a solid understanding of the corporate sector and how the sales and marketing fields work.
With a good deal of experience, when he was offered the position of CEO in a leading electronics brand in 2021, Aarush thought his career had reached the height he deserved. As a CEO, Aarush was setting up the entire business from distribution, marketing, and logistics, to services.
/startuppedia/media/media_files/2025/02/18/pK6rG8s5Uwe2Qrr0bVDz.jpeg)
Finding a “Big” problem in the industry & trying to resolve it
At this point, Aarush realised there was a big issue in the electronics industry where the speed of service could not match the speed of sales. He got acquainted with a person called Rajni Kant Sinha on LinkedIn who was facing this problem. He had bought all the electronics needed for his parent's home in Jamshedpur. However, the appliances were lying around waiting for the installation.
“Jamshedpur is not even a small place,” Aarush said. “It was the start of 2022 when Rajni was struggling as a customer and I was struggling as a brand owner because the speed of servicing was extremely slow.”
Aarush and Rajni discussed the problem and realised that though the electronic sector has solved its sales problem, in terms of service it was thoroughly unorganised and there was a huge potential to make a business out of it.
/startuppedia/media/media_files/2025/02/18/CDF1PCPiRyeiaFf1yo86.jpeg)
Two social media friends come together to build a startup
So, in September 2022, Aarush Dhawan and Rajni Kant Sinha founded SERVIZ, a startup that provides service, repair and maintenance of electronic appliances for brands and corporates.
A Harvard Business School Alumni with tonnes of experience in corporate management, Rajni Kant Sinha has a keen eye on the evolving retail landscape. A serial entrepreneur, Rajni has expertise in Product, Business, Operations, and Technology domains.
Based out of Noida, Aarush Dhawan and Rajni Kant Sinha’s startup now covers more than 16,000 pin codes across India including the metros, tier 1, 2, 3 cities and beyond for brands.
SERVIZ supports electronic brands and corporates with end-to-end after-sales service and provides post-purchase servicing to customers of these brands.
Services offered by SERVIZ
Currently, Aarush and Rajni Kant’s startup works in 3 verticals.
1st vertical: SERVIZ works with 30 big home appliance brands and supports their operations at the pan-India level.
2nd vertical: In its second category are the strategic clients, retailers, e-tailers and extended warranty players. In this vertical, SERVIZ works with E-commerce giant, Amazon and extended warranty players like Zopper and Onsitego. Aarush Dhawan’s startup works as a partner for Amazon to support servicing for its sellers.
3rd vertical: This vertical is the company’s corporate division where it works with major quick commerce players like Zomato and Blinkit and leading names in other sectors such as Akash Institute and Oyo Workspaces, etc for their air conditioning and cooling category for offices and dark stores. SERVIZ manages the entire site for its client companies.
“We are the backend service partners for all these 3 categories,” disclosed SERVIZ founder Aarush Dhawan to Startup Pedia.
The revenue model of SERVIZ
The startup generates revenue from 4 channels.
-
Electronic Brands like Boat,
-
Retailers like Amazon,
3. Extended Warranty Companies like Zopper,
4. Corporates like Zomato and Aakash Institutes.
The plan:
Brands pay SERVIZ directly (e.g., ₹1000 for installation) while they pay the Service Centers their share (e.g., ₹700). So, Aarush Dhawan’s company retains a margin (e.g., ₹300 or 30% in this example).
Fixed aspects:
The fixed aspects of the business are Rate cards with brands and fixed payout rates with Service Centers.
The startup retains a margin, which is the difference between Brand payment and Service Center payout.
“Numbers can vary based on service type and negotiated rates,” said SERVIZ founder Aarush Dhawan.
Comprehensive brief of revenue models
SERVIZ for Brands
As it is a Service provider between Brands and Service Centers, its revenue in this case is the fixed rates charged to brands. The cost is a pre-agreed payout to Service Centers.
For instance, if a brand pays ₹1000, the Service Center gets ₹700, while SERVIZ keeps ₹300.
SERVIZ for Corporates (HVAC AMC)
Under this comes the Annual Maintenance Contracts (AMC) for commercial Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC).
The company generates its revenue per tonnage charging (e.g., ₹2500/tonne) will cover regular maintenance, repairs, breakdown service, and spare parts.
The startup retains a margin, which is the difference between Corporate payment and Service Center payout.
“Both models operate on similar margin principles but differ in service delivery and payment structure - transactional for Brands vs annual contracts for Corporates,” the SERVIZ founder shared with Startup Pedia.
Investments in the startup and profits generated
SERVIZ started as a bootstrap company where the founders invested around Rs. 30 - 40 Lakhs themselves and collected almost the same amount from friends and family.
“We have invested around Rs. 60 - 70 Lakhs in total. Later, in early 2024 we raised our seed fund,” shared the electronics maintenance company founder. “We are now in the pre-series A funding stage.”
On asking about the revenue, the founder didn't want to disclose it as they are going to raise another funding soon.
/startuppedia/media/media_files/2025/02/18/QFDi31Etno4FqbfRUp3D.jpeg)
Goals
SERVIZ is planning to scale up its business in all 3 verticals. They are in talks about working with many more home appliance brands, and structured retail channels, be it online or offline. They are aiming to manage more than 1 lakh tonnes of air conditioners for corporates.
“We are eager to cater for the quick com space and grow in future,” said the founder of SERVIZ. “It is an exciting opportunity for us to match the services with delivery.”
SERVIZ plans to do category expansion, and servicing for the IT and other sectors as well. They want to grow geographically all around India and also want to take the same model to some top cities outside the country.
“We are solving a big problem here,” remarked Aarush Dhawan. “Most people in the country don’t even know how to visit a company’s portal and ask for servicing of their appliances. Their point of contact is the retailer making the whole process extremely slow.”
The entrepreneur elaborated, "There are at least 10,000 electronic brands and around 50,000 service centres in India. However, these brands and those service centres are not aligned and not integrated. So, if the brand wants to expand they don't have access to the service centres. And those service centres are not capable enough to approach brands and work together. Plus the integration of technology is not even 2% right now in the industry. It’s all manual and uncertain.”
SERVIZ is solving a real problem on the ground level through tech support and networks.
“We are creating India’s largest after-sales service network through technology,” Aarush told Startup Pedia. “I would repeat that there is a huge problem out there. In future, we’ll solve the same problem for other categories like say, furniture etc. once we structure this. And then we’ll replicate the same model in other industries as well.”
/startuppedia/media/media_files/2025/02/18/RwPewO76AwASsiCitSSc.jpeg)
Challenges faced
SERVIZ started as a small office in Rajni Kant’s residence. Now, the Noida-based startup is a 100-employee company. Its main branch has a capacity of 80 employees. They also have an office in Jamshedpur, and teams based in Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Raipur, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Lucknow and Kolkata.
“Both of us have left high-salaried jobs in the corporate sector and put all our savings into this business,” SERVIZ founder Aarush Dhawan opened up to Startup Pedia. “There have been days when Rajni and I didn’t have even 2000 bucks in our bank accounts. We could have given it up, but our family supported us in those times,” he added.
Tips to new entrepreneurs
The Noida-based startup founder said it's important to find out a problem before starting a business.
“Find a problem which is big enough for you to solve and then see if it is good enough for you to make a business out of it,” said Aarush knowingly. “I always say if you solve a problem for a million people, you will be a million-dollar company. Similarly, if you solve a problem for a billion people, you will be a billion-dollar company!”
The marketing head turned business owner also added, “You need a lot of perseverance because entrepreneurship is not meant to be a smooth journey! Be prepared for new challenges. If you are on the right track solving the right problems, everything will fall into place.”
SERVIZ founder Aarush Dhawan also shared that these days youngsters get easily discouraged by seeing success stories of others.
“You will never know the hardships someone faces in life,” the Noida business owner remarked. “People always show their best version to the world. You have to hold a positive mindset and keep grinding. Be a part of your own journey! You will be at the top someday and then someday you will be at the bottom. Our journey with SERVIZ is all about patience and perseverance. This is what I can say.”