Bots to Big Machines
At the Kinetiq RRobotics (Star Engineers India Pvt. Ltd) booth, the future quite literally looked back at you. Newly launched AI greeting robots stood at the entrance, ready with a cheerful “Hi” as visitors approached, their screens lighting up with multilingual responses and quick, fluid voice recognition. You could talk to them, ask them questions, even watch them process information in real time. Not far from them rolled a group of delivery robots, their tray shelves neatly stacked with cups, chips and chocolates, gliding through the crowd like friendly attendants.
The mix of warmth and automation at the stall made it one of the most striking examples of how robotics is being designed not just to work — but to engage, assist and coexist with people. As the company’s chief growth officer Anil Sathe summed it, “Rather than replacing people, these robots are meant to complement human labour by taking over repetitive, low-value tasks.”
The company’s immediate target segments include hospitality, corporate offices, pharma and food manufacturing (where human presence is restricted), warehousing and e-commerce fulfilment.
If the robotics pavilion revealed automation in motion, a short walk away the focus shifted to the quieter strength of smart engineering. Stas Chem Technologies Pvt. Ltd, a 40-year-old group rooted in chemical manufacturing, brought a different kind of innovation to the exhibition — BLACK, the company’s newly launched brand for cleaning tools and machinery.
The lineup included around 12 freshly introduced machines and three additional product lines, with multiple SKUs planned under each category. The new launches include single disk scrubbing and polishing machine, advanced vacuum cleaners and scrubber driers. “All machines are assembled in-house and all development labs, quality control processes and compliance certifications are maintained internally,” said Ayush Saxena, Director at Stas Group.
AI At Work
Amid the heavy-duty machines, the exhibition also revealed discoveries unfolding in a quieter digital space – like a digital map of India’s loos, stitched together through AI, rewards and a simple idea called World of Loo (WOLOO).
WOLOO stood out at the exhibition as a digital ecosystem built to solve one of India’s most persistent challenges – clean and reliable public sanitation, especially for women. Founded by Manish Kelshikar, the company’s journey began in 2019 with an intention to create safe, hygienic, women-friendly washrooms. “We started with building our own washrooms called the ‘women’s powder room’. The first of these spaces opened in Mumbai,” said senior manager Shreya Kumbhavdekar.
An Integrated System
For exhibitors and visitors navigating the complexities of housekeeping, laundry services, sanitation contracts, or multi-site maintenance, Zoho FSM (Zoho Corporation Pvt. Ltd)’s digital intervention was easily understood. Its core idea is simple: Bring every moving part of a service operation onto one integrated system.
As the team explained, many small and mid-sized cleaning businesses today still coordinate technicians through informal channels — mostly WhatsApp messages, scattered notes, and manual scheduling. “The result is predictable with missed slots, double-booked staff, delayed assignments, and no visibility into what is happening in the field. We fill this gap,” they said.
Built as a mobile-friendly, multilingual platform (available in Hindi and over 25 languages), Zoho FSM enables businesses to schedule, assign, track, invoice and close jobs from a single ecosystem. The platform supports both Android and iOS, with a web interface for back-end teams, making it accessible to operations of every scale.
One of its standout capabilities is intelligent dispatching — the system allows managers to assign technicians based on proximity, skill set, availability, and potential scheduling conflicts.
“On-the-ground staff can update job status, upload images, and collect customer feedback directly through the app, creating a complete record of every visit,” the team members explained.
According to the Zoho team, the steady footfalls not only brought leads and sign-ups, but rich conversations with cleaning businesses of all. Many visitors, they noted, were openly relieved to discover that such a platform existed, because they had long been juggling operations manually without realising a dedicated solution could streamline everything.
Laundry’s Software Spin
In a sector long dominated by handwritten receipts, manual sorting and frequent mix-ups, a newly begun platform called O’terri (MKS Oterri Pvt Ltd) is attempting to bring structure, traceability and intelligent automation to India’s largely unorganised laundry landscape.
According to the company officials, the idea began with a personal experience involving a garment mix-up with a high-end dress, which highlighted how little transparency existed across the industry. The app’s development formally began in 2023, with the system undergoing build-outs in 2024 and its refined interface beginning public introduction in 2025. The current exhibition marks only the third time Oterri has been showcased in a public setting.
The stall at the exhibition also reflected O’terri’s philosophy: Completely paperless, with all registrations, demos and sign-ups conducted digitally.
O’terri functions as a digital laundry aggregator, already bringing together a community of nearly 250 channel partners on a single platform. At its core is an app-driven system that replaces paper receipts with digital order IDs, complete itemised lists, and upfront pricing.
One of the platform’s most distinctive features is its digital wardrobe. “Customers can photograph each garment, building a visual catalogue that logs brand, colour, garment type, and even the number of times it has gone for service. For more casual users, the app allows simple icon-based selection for placing normal orders, but the advanced wardrobe is aimed at those who value a detailed, trackable record,” the company officials said.
The digital wardrobe also enables wardrobe sharing — a feature the company says reflects everyday Indian habits of lending clothes among family members. The process allows the lender and the borrower to set expectations through digital records and return timelines, reducing the risk of items being misplaced or forgotten.
On the vendor side, O’terri offers an AI-enabled dashboard that learns with use, providing analytics on business patterns. “Laundry owners receive insights such as repeat ratios, best customers, and alerts if a regular customer suddenly reduces orders. In addition, the vendor app documents intake conditions: When garments arrive with stains or defects, staff can photograph them at the counter and send the images through the system, creating a timestamped digital record that avoids disputes and clarifies whether extra treatment or charges are required,” officials added.
Lite and Smart
SMRT Systems (SMRT Systems Inc.) has become one of the fastest-growing Point of Sale (POS) providers across the US, Europe and Australia. After researching the Indian market for five years, the company realised that local businesses needed something more affordable, and deeply intuitive for a user base that depends heavily on WhatsApp, UPI payments and offline flexibility.
“Our software Smart Lite is their answer to that gap — a streamlined, modernised version of their older POS engine, with a redesigned interface and every essential workflow built around the practical realities of Indian dry cleaners, laundromats and hotel laundry units. It works fully offline when required and syncs to the cloud once connectivity returns, delivers order creation and payment links,” said Prakhar Lohiya, director of product innovation.
For walk-ins, the experience is designed to be as frictionless as possible — place an order, receive an instant WhatsApp update with the delivery timeline, and pay via UPI, credit card or a link. “For route-based customers, subscription billing is automated and makes pickups and deliveries significantly easier to manage. Behind the counter, the system maps each step of the Indian dry-cleaning workflow — from sorting to assembly — in a way that mirrors what operators already do manually, only with greater accuracy and far less repetition,” explained Lohiya.
One of the most intriguing features the company brought to India is a thumb-sized tag widely used in the US and Europe. “Once attached discreetly to a garment, it survives nearly a hundred wash cycles without detaching. Each tag essentially acts as a permanent digital identity: The moment it is scanned, the system pulls up everything associated with that piece — its colour, brand, past service history, earlier stains or damage notes, and the customer it belongs to. The feature promises a complete shift in efficiency, ensuring garments are never mixed up and regular customers aren’t re-entered manually each time they walk in,” said Lohiya.
Smart Light’s official debut at Clean India 2025 drew a steady crowd, including early adopters who had first encountered its systems at global shows in Germany, France and Orlando. “Many visited the booth specifically to see how the India-adapted version compared to its international counterpart. Not a single visitor left feeling the software lacked what they needed — a response they described as both encouraging and affirming of their five-year research effort,” the officials said.
NextGen Automation
Fahosel (Favone Laundromat Pvt. Ltd), a leading supplier of commercial and industrial laundry solutions in India, showcased its newest offering Schulthess machines, featuring next-generation laundry automation experience. “These machines allow dosing of up to 13 chemicals depending on program requirements, a flexibility which is unmatched in the Indian market,” said director Saabina Siraj.
Adding that the timing was just right, she said, “Over the past decade, we have observed the Indian laundry sector shift dramatically, especially across Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities where awareness of professional laundry, dry cleaning, fabric-care rules, and outsourcing of household laundry has grown rapidly. Younger entrepreneurs are entering the field, customers are more informed, and the once-unorganised billion-dollar landscape is steadily formalising.”
What’s In A Name
This confidence in a sector on the cusp of formalisation wasn’t Fahosel’s alone. At Dhobi Cart (One India Technologies Pvt. Ltd)’s stall, founder Gaurav Jain voiced a similar belief. “We have attempted to streamline one of the industry’s oldest pain points — the everyday operational chaos inside dry-cleaning and laundry businesses. Positioned as a software designed specifically for laundries and dry cleaners, Dhobi Cart manages the entire workflow from billing to delivery, allowing users to create orders, generate invoices, print tags, coordinate riders, and oversee delivery cycles within a single system,” he said.
Dhobi Cart’s stall drew visitors from across India — a reach Jain credited to the company’s pan-India digital presence and advertising. “While the software is meant for end-users such as laundries and dry cleaners, even chemical manufacturers stopped by, exploring potential collaborations to integrate product recommendations into the platform’s delivery chain. Yet nearly 90% of the footfall came from businesses looking to adopt our software for their laundry operations,” he added.
Automation Heavyweights
With most visitors showing a rising appetite for digitised, AI-enabled workflows, the interest around IPC-Tennant (IP Cleaning India Pvt. Ltd) products made immediate sense.
At its booth, the company’s centrepiece was the India launch of the X6 Rover — an autonomous scrubber-drier designed for large, high-traffic environments such as airports, hospitals, warehouses, and industrial sites.
“This product features Gen-4 AI-driven navigation — two generations ahead of most autonomous cleaning units presently available in the country. This enables the robot to map spaces, reroute intelligently around obstacles, pause when required, and complete tasks without human intervention. It is equipped with self-docking and self-charging systems, allowing uninterrupted operational cycles,” said Sanjay Ravikumar, the branch manager of Karnataka region.
Another notable aspect of the X6 Rover is its privacy-protected mapping camera. “While AI systems require spatial imaging for navigation, we are offering a blurred-image mode, ensuring layouts are captured without exposing identifiable details. All data remains encrypted within IPC’s secure cloud environment,” added Ravikumar.
Experience Counts
The exhibition also featured legacy engineering firms such as Stefab (Stefab India Ltd), whose decades of manufacturing experience continue to shape the backbone of India’s commercial laundry ecosystem.
One of the country’s oldest laundry equipment manufacturers, the company was founded in 1975 by Deepak Hora. Stefab began producing these machines domestically, building on an even earlier family background in the trade dating back to the 1960s.
Today, the company manufactures a wide range of equipment at its New Delhi facility, including washer-extractors, dryers, flatwork ironers, folders, stacker machines, spotting units and vacuum finishing tables.
According to the company, the most significant shift in recent years has been the Indian customer’s growing focus on quality, energy efficiency and long-term operating costs. “While price sensitivity remains, buyers increasingly evaluate technical specifications, water and power consumption, and overall return on investment,” said Zehen Arora, sales director at Stefab.
Marking Its Debut
The show marked Boucherie (Machine Boucherie (I) Pvt. Ltd)’s first-ever participation in the country, introducing its non-woven and microfiber machinery to the Indian market. “This is our first exhibition in India,” said Sandro Monti, a representative of Italy-based Toscana Non Tessuti.
During the interaction, the representative shared that Boucherie has been exploring a new strategy for India. “We are looking at the possibility of forming a joint venture in India, discussions are underway,” he said.
The representative noted that there is a big opportunity for their machinery. “We have the technology; we just need to adjust according to what India needs. Even though India is a complex market with different languages and mentalities, the response from people has been encouraging,” he added.
He explained that their machinery segment includes components for nonwoven and microfiber production, and that India’s expanding manufacturing ecosystem makes it a promising destination.
Describing the three-day exhibition as very high in terms of engagement, the company representatives said they got a chance to interact with high-quality people who showed serious interest in raw materials as well as machinery. “Visitors were technically knowledgeable and understood the quality differences among machines. They were prepared to discuss new technologies and evaluate them,” he added.
The representatives informed that the company has been a regular participant in cleaning exhibitions in Europe and the USA, and chose Clean India Show because of India’s evolving market potential. “We decided to come to this expo because we see a good opportunity here. India has changed very fast—in mentality and in economy—making it an attractive market for us,” they added.
Two Decades Strong
Bengaluru-based Charnock Equipments Pvt. Ltd stood out as one of Clean India Show’s longest-standing participants. Associated with the exhibition right from the very first edition, the company showcased its latest innovations and expanding solutions portfolio this year.
The company launched two new machines – a Wide Area Carpet Vacuum machine and a low-height single disc machine. “The carpet vacuum machine is a unique solution designed for large carpeted areas; it covers about 8000 to 10,000 square feet per hour. The single disc machine has been developed specifically for railway coaches and interior cleaning applications, the low-height design allows it to reach tight spaces where conventional machines cannot operate. Both products have already been supplied to several customers in India,” informed Vedant Matta, Director – sales at the company.
The company has been continuously adapting to shifting industry dynamics. “We customise products based on specific client requirements and broader market needs, ensuring relevance in a rapidly evolving sector. We are growing at a healthy pace, and we aim to achieve 3X growth in the next five years,” Matta added.
Five New Made-in-India Machines
Long before ‘Make in India’ became a national mission, Punjab-based Cosmic Healers Private Limited had already made it a practice. The company, which has been developing and manufacturing indigenous cleaning machines for years, emphasised this legacy at the Clean India Show 2025, where it presented its battery-operated machines built specifically for local needs.
The firm showcased its flagship litter-picker ‘Gobbler’ which has a ride-on and walk-along versions. The clear showstopper of the stall, Gobbler is described by the company as ‘India’s first indigenously manufactured battery-operated litter picker’ with a high-power suction mechanism and an inbuilt water tank and filtration system. “It is designed to collect everything from disposable cups and cigarette butts to leaves and plastic wrappers and can hold 240 litres of waste; the Gobbler Pro (ride-on) variant is built for longer coverage, and it can cover large areas in a single shift,” informed the company representatives.
Other innovations that were on display was a multi-utility scooter ‘Moppy’ – a three-wheeled, ride-on electric mopping scooter with interchangeable attachments for dry mop, wiper and brush. With up to 8-hour runtime and a 4-hour charge time, Moppy is best-suited for airports, malls, hospitals and large campuses where silent, efficient floor cleaning is required.
The company officials also highlighted another battery-operated water-jetting machine ‘Volley’, which has a 500-litre water tank, high-pressure jetting capability and a quoted runtime of 4–6 hours per charge.
According to Tarandeep Singh, vice president, client services at Cosmic Healers, the development of battery-operated machines began well before the rise of modern EV vehicles. “The concept, manufacturing and design have been refined over many years, and today the company has deployed more than 300–350 machines across various regions. These machines are already in use by several municipal bodies including Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation and Pune Corporation,” said Singh.
Singh highlighted that the batteries are fully manufactured in India. “Unlike older EV technologies, these are maintenance-free batteries which are easily available,” he added.
Mechanised Cleaning
A leading entity in the manufacturing domain since about four decades, Goma (Goma Cleantech Pvt. Ltd)’s flagship business is to deliver end-to-end solutions for high-pressure pumps and systems. “We are much more known as the high-pressure people,” the company’s officials said, adding that they supply to a wide range of industries including cement, steel, power utilities, ship cleaning, and paint removal applications.
According to the Rakesh Gosrani, manager (marketing) at Goma, one of the most notable changes in the last few years is the mindset shift among customers. “Many sectors that previously relied on manual cleaning methods are now actively adopting mechanised solutions. Earlier, people were not comfortable with mechanised cleaning but in the last seven to eight years, and especially after COVID, the demand has increased,” he said.
Housing societies — both in metros and emerging Tier-2 cities—are now among the fastest adopters of the company’s products. “We attribute this change to multiple factors including increased awareness about hygiene and sanitisation post-COVID, the need for faster, uniform, and more effective cleaning and growing familiarity with machines among staff and housekeeping teams,” said Gosrani.
Goma manufactures some equipment in India, imports some components, and assembles certain machines locally. The company strongly supports the government’s Make in India initiative. “It saves foreign exchange, reduces machine cost, and ensures that spares are easily available at good prices,” said Gosrani.
Paramount Debut
While it was the company’s debut at the exhibition, Paramount Universal Pvt. Ltd, the company behind the Claret brand of tissues, carries a 51-year legacy in aluminium containers and tissue manufacturing. Claret itself has been in the market for 10 years.
The firm showcased its full range—including Claret Ultra (premium segment) and the recently launched Claret Bamboo line—positioning sustainability as a core theme. “The demand for bamboo-based tissues has been rising as Indian consumers increasingly look for more hygienic and eco-friendly alternatives. People want quality now,” said Claret’s country head Rajesh Sharma.
Claret manufactures its products in Sonipat, Haryana, and supports distribution through a network of warehouses across India. “This structure allows us to meet service expectations by ensuring faster deliveries,” said E-commerce head Bikramjeet Bhattacharjee.
The visitors at their stall included institutional buyers, potential distributors from both Tier I and Tier II cities and business owners exploring sustainable or premium tissue options. “The value of this expo lies in enabling customers to experience the entire product range firsthand. People may come with one product in mind, but when they see everything, they realise they need more,” said Bhattacharjee.
The shift in consumption patterns, according to the company, is linked to rising purchasing power and changing priorities within Indian households. “While tissues were once not considered an essential item, the hygiene awareness has grown substantially, especially post-COVID. This has led to increased sales of face tissues, kitchen towels, toilet rolls and specialty paper products,” said Sharma.
Tagging Immediate Connect
Maytag Commercial (Protek Trade Pvt. Ltd) reported that the Clean India Show brought a good response for its new washer–dryer range, especially from visitors attending from the western region. The team said that since the stall was located in Mumbai, they received strong footfall from Mumbai and Pune, and that operators who already run laundry setups “understand the challenges” and therefore immediately connected with the features of the machine.
The company also noted that people were receptive to the five-year warranty and the service network that Maytag has already established in Mumbai, Bangalore and Gurgaon. “Since service availability is a major concern for laundry operators in interior cities, many visitors wanted a machine that can be serviced or troubleshot quickly through local technicians,” the company officials said.
Prime Turning Point
For Primmox, the Clean India Show acted as a strong “turning point,” giving the company direct access to customers and allowing meaningful conversions. The team noted that the event brought in substantial footfall and created a valuable platform to showcase its hygiene and healthcare product range.
According to general manager Sameer Sawant, the exhibit gave the company a platform to meet a wide range of visitors and convert interest into meaningful business opportunities. “We witnessed enthusiastic engagement from distributors, and substantial inquiries. The visitors comprised of institutional buyers and dealers, many of whom expressed interest in expanding their product portfolios,” he said.
Operating under CHH India Private Limited, the company is one of the leading suppliers of air fresheners and other products related to healthcare. The brand’s core customer base includes malls, hospitals, hotels, metro stations, housing societies, power plants, cement industries, and steel industries. “We also supply to facility management companies and are increasingly getting active in e-commerce, with customers from healthcare and hospitality showing strong online-driven demand,” said Sawant.
Sawant stated that there have been significant shifts in the last five years. “The rise of new vendors, growing awareness among customers, and innovations in the air-freshener category have reshaped the sector. Consumer demand is moving away from low-quality manual systems towards improved hygiene solutions,” he added.
The company foresees major scope for growth over the next 5–10 years. While acknowledging competition, Sawant felt that their product range positions it well for future expansion.
Cleaning Tool Demand
Making its first appearance at the Clean India Show, New-Delhi based company Fablas Impex Pvt. Ltd presented itself as a prominent cleaning tools manufacturer with a growing national footprint.
According to the company’s sales head Manish Kumar Sharma, “Platforms like these are essential for MSMEs that have limited access to large-scale distribution networks or high-budget marketing channels. It enables visibility and direct interaction with both consumers and trade partners,” said Sharma.
Sharma observed several challenger brands exhibiting, which he described as the “best part” of the event, as it levels the playing field for emerging companies. “Retailers formed a significant portion of the footfall, along with many companies seeking white-label manufacturing support for their own brands. Several visitors were exploring opportunities to enter the cleaning tools business and approached us for partnerships,” said Sharma.
Fablas showcased an expansive range that includes mops, wipes, brushes, brooms, wipers and other essential cleaning tools. “What was once a niche category has now become a fast-growing segment, driven by consumers who prioritise hygiene both inside and outside the home.
Indian households have gradually moved away from traditional cleaning methods — such as cloth wipes and steel scrubbers — to more advanced, specialised tools like wipes, multiple types of scrubbers and modern kitchen-cleaning accessories. Personal care cleaning tools, including makeup removers and skin-care applicators, are also witnessing a sharp rise in adoption, especially among urban consumers,” added Sharma.
When asked whether automation poses competition to manual cleaning tools, the company official stated that automation is still limited to hotels, offices and institutional spaces due to its high cost and narrow target audience. “For Indian households—especially those within the country’s large middle- and lower-income brackets—manual tools will continue to remain the primary choice,” said Sharma.
Dispensing Hygiene
Mazaf International Agencies Pvt. Ltd, a company associated with the Indian hygiene and dispensing industry since 2004, reiterated its long-standing partnership and continued commitment to the Indian market. Representatives shared that the company has been closely aligned with Indian clients for nearly two decades, supplying a wide range of hygiene dispensers that have grown steadily in demand over the years.
The company mainly deals in two categories of products — hygiene and housekeeping. “Having an experience of almost three decades of general merchandise from India, our group entered into imports and distribution of hygiene and house-keeping products since 2004. As for now, we are importing/marketing products like aerosol dispenser, aerosol perfume dispenser, LED and LCD aerosol dispensers, manual and auto soap dispensers, jumbo roll and multi-fold paper dispensers, metered odour neutralizer, feminine hygiene bin, air freshener, etc,” the team said.
Sharing a brief industry history, the company’s director Mazhr Topiwala said, “When hygiene products were first introduced in India, the concept was new and required significant customer education. Over time, as demand in India increased, manufacturing also expanded globally, particularly in China and Malaysia.”
Their product mix now includes 47 manual and 13 automatic dispenser variants.
Manufacturing is distributed: procurement happens from Malaysia, China, and Vietnam, while product selection is based strictly on quality and reliability.