To be an entrepreneur is to be a problem solver. It means trying to find a solution to an issue that others have spent their lives looking past. Or, as Athbi Alenezi, co-founder and CEO of cleaning service app Justclean, puts it, “It’s about creating something new that makes people’s lives easier.”
This is exactly what he and his brother, and co-founder Nouri Alenezi, did when they established Kuwait’s first cleaning app in 2017.
A Kuwaiti, 34-year-old Athbi was born during the war, and his early life was spent being the eldest brother to his four younger siblings. Astute and slick-talking, he knew he wanted more out of life from a young age.
“I always wanted to do more than just work for a company,” he notes. “I wanted to be able to take a risk in my early 20s, so that, if it didn’t work out, I could go back into a career.” With his mind set on being his own boss, all he needed was to find the right idea.
After a stint living in his mother’s hometown in the Midlands of England, Athbi returned to the Gulf to work at the National Bank Kuwait. The adjustment from the English pace of life to a slower Khaleeji rhythm offered something unexpected – the space to think. “We were just going to work, going to the gym, going home. This meant we had the energy and time to come up with something,” he says.
As with many great ideas, his too started with a simple observation.
While using his local maghsala or laundry to get his dishdashas cleaned for work, he became fascinated by how people used laundries in the GCC – often informally, through word-of-mouth recommendations or direct phone calls.
He quickly realised this was one sector of society that was falling behind the technical revolution. “I couldn’t even imagine ordering food by phone anymore [Kuwaiti company Talabat launched its app back in 2015], so why was I calling the laundry?” he remembers thinking. “I’d never call a taxi to come and pick me up, so why do I still call the laundry?”
The inefficiency sparked a concept – what if the laundry industry had a digital platform, just like Talabat for food?
“Nouri and I said to each other, ‘Let’s have an app with all the laundries. We take a commission from every order, and we organise everything – pick-up time, pricing, ratings, and deals. We’d clean the industry up – literally.”
But turning that idea into a functional, scalable product required more than just a sparkling idea. Without a tech background, the brothers turned to research. They sought app development companies, comparing costs and approaches.
“Building an app is like constructing a building,” Athbi explains. “Developers are builders – they know how to code, but they’re not the architects. You have to guide them.” Armed with nothing more than a problem-solving mindset and dedication to hard work, the Alenezi brothers got to work.
Athbi and Nouri launched Kuwait’s first on-demand laundry service marketplace app, Masbagti (meaning “my laundry” in Arabic), in 2016.
Over its first year, the app built up a stronger user base and gained respect in the tech sphere, with Athbi’s pitch winning first place at ArabNet’s Startup Battle contest.
When they started approaching laundries to join the app, simplicity was vital. “We realised we couldn’t ask them to invest in complicated systems. Most of them had Android phones, so we built a partner app just for order receiving. That made onboarding much easier.”
Another key to their early success, Athbi makes a point of stating, was timing. “It wouldn’t have succeeded if we launched today. There’d be more competition, more saturation in the market,” he explains. “Actually, a lot of great ideas fail not because they’re bad, but because it’s the wrong time. It’s either too early or too late, usually, too early.”
This mix of market potential, clever execution, and timing attracted investors quickly. “At the beginning, investors were more interested in us than we were in them,” Athbi says. “When you show that your idea is not just an idea, but working, scalable, and targeting a $3.5 billion industry, people want in.”
The app soon caught the attention of Kuwaiti entrepreneur Mohammed Jaffar. The former CEO of Talabat, who was now working at a venture capital fund, Faith Capital, invested in the brothers, taking their success to the next level and eventually leading to the rebranding of the app to Justclean.
Like many businesses, Justclean faced a trial by fire in 2020. While some regions benefited from lockdown-driven demand, others suffered, as people stayed home in their pyjamas with no laundry needs.
But the groundwork laid out pre-pandemic gave the brand resilience. “We took a hit, but bounced right back,” Athbi says. “We built such a quality product that, as soon as restrictions lifted, people came back to it.”
Today, Justclean is the dominant cleaning app in Kuwait and a major player across the GCC. They’ve also expanded their offerings far beyond laundry. “We always knew we didn’t want to stop at just laundry. We renamed it Justclean for a reason. We wanted to cover everything clean. So when people think of clean, they think of us.” Now, the app includes home cleaning, car washing, beauty services, AC servicing, carpet and shoe cleaning, and more. It’s a full-service marketplace – and one that continues to scale.
Growth isn’t driven just by market trends, but by an understanding of local culture. “We operate across the region, not just in one city. We focus on local flavour, understanding the people,” Athbi says. “That’s why we often perform better in Abu Dhabi than Dubai, though Dubai is more competitive.”
However, relocating the company’s headquarters to Dubai in 2022 helped Justclean take the business to the next level. “To get investment and scale globally, it made sense to be here. Dubai offers the infrastructure and connections to take things to the next level,” Athbi shares.
What started as a simple idea shared between two brothers has become a regional tech powerhouse, and, for Athbi Alenezi, it all comes back to taking a chance on yourself. “Entrepreneurship is the unknown. But if you believe in your vision, and you build something that works, something that helps people, you’ll find your way.”
Visit justclean.com
