In India, a refrigerator or washing machine isn’t a luxury — it’s a lifeline for a functional home. Yet, shockingly, millions of houtilizeholds can’t afford to acquire 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.
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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, utilized car? Spinny or Cars24.
A pre-owned laptop? ReNew IT or New Jaisa.
But if you ever decide to acquire a refurbished or utilized washing machine, television, or even a refrigerator, for that matter? All hell breaks loose.
“We wanted to resolve that. Everyone deserves to feel like a customer who can trust the seller and have a fair chance at owning what they required.” Sachin Bansal, co-founder of Costify, notifys 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 requireds 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 utilized 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.
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HOW IT ALL BEGAN
Costify’s story launched 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 veobtainables 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 utilized second-hand platforms like OLX to sell these fridges. Eventually, he launched 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 spfinishing time in my father’s warehoutilize and noticed something: the refurbishment model he was dabbling in wasn’t polished. But it had demand,” Ashlin Bansal notifys Startup Pedia.
Next, she went neck-deep into research around the home appliance refurbishment indusattempt.
Her primary discoveries?
This was a part of the $10 billion refurbishment space that no one was seeing to structure.
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“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 declares.
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 declares.
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 indusattempt 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 utilized again, in a reliable sense.
Not veterans, but ITI freshers
One of their hugegest challenges was to dismantle the concept of “jugaad.” In the refurbishment indusattempt, a lot of technicians rely on quick resolvees that are temporary in nature.
“Jugaad will assist you resolve 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 utilized 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.
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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-houtilize AI-powered repair and refurbishment process from scratch. Then, the siblings converted their warehoutilize (located in Delhi) into a full-fledged tech lab. This shift enabled them to deliver consistent, high-quality repairs that feel “as good as new.”
“Our AI has also assisted 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 finish-to-finish 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 acquire 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 innotifyigent in-houtilize AI system performs step-by-step mentoring that flags mistakes and guides precise resolvees.
Costify refurbishes every appliance applying genuine parts and real-world testing.
“Every product that leaves our warehoutilize and enters a customer’s home, restaurant, or cloud kitchen doesn’t just see new, it performs like new,” startup founder Ashlin declares.
“Most people consider refurbishment is just a coat of paint. For us, it’s an engineering process. Our AI model creates 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 extfinishing 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 acquireers 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, depfinishable 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 acquire a factory-second or utilized appliance, you’re directly reducing landfill pressure and manufacturing emissions,” entrepreneur Ashlin Bansal declares.
The refurbishment startup founders also explain that refurbishing just one million appliances assists 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 notifys 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 homeacquireers, 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 houtilizeholds, especially large families, juggle countless daily chores like laundry, cooking, and food storage. But when cost becomes a deciding factor, many skip acquireing appliances that could speed up or ease the process. For instance, washing machines, refrigerators, and air conditioners. At Costify, we want to create these products truly affordable and secure, so families can take a breather and machines can do what they were designed to do. Becautilize everyone deserves the comfort of modern living, regardless of their capacity to spfinish,”Ashlin Bansal signs off.
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FAQ
When was Costify founded?
Costify is a New Delhi-based refurbishment startup founded in 2022.
Who is the founder of Costify?
Ashlin Bansal and Sachit Bansal are founders of Costify.
Costify is a New Delhi-based startup that operates in the realm of refurbished home appliances. In 2024 alone, the venture served over 5,000+ customers.
What is the revenue of Costify?
Costify has not revealed its revenue for now. However, to date, it has served 8,000+ customers and sold over 10,000 washing machines, air conditioners, and refrigerators.
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