There are over 18 million domestic workers within the Latin American and Caribbean region. Despite this, household employees such as privately hired cleaners tend to have few government-imposed working rights within the workplace.
This is something that Mexican-based Mi Dulce Hogar is working to change. Launched just four years ago in Guadalajara, the cleaning platform is now launching in Mexico City and will allow users to schedule cleaning appointments through their app for their homes across Mexico’s vast capital.
From cleaning common areas, homes and offices, users are also able to hire workers to help with folding clothes, polishing glasses and cleaning stoves as part of a platform that ensures the rights and safety of both workers and clients.
The difference with Mi Dulce Hogar, as opposed to other cleaning sites, is that one of their key priorities is to ensure the well-being of each cleaner who registers to work through the app. All their registered workers are provided with legal benefits, life insurance, microcredit and even English classes in order to protect cleaners from a typically unregulated workspace.
As a result, the app has already secured over 28,000 successful work appointments in Guadalajara alone, many of them then going onto be repeated on a weekly basis.
What’s more, CEO and founder Estefanía Hernández is breaking her own barriers by becoming one of a select few female tech CEOs in Mexico. According to a recent study by the International Labour Organisation, some 80% of household workers tend to be women, with this app working to ensure the safety and wellbeing of their contracted cleaners.
The easy-to-use platform guarantees not just work security but also addresses data protection and information sharing. In a recent press release the startup also revealed that, with the help of a team of criminologists, it had developed in-platform criminal record checks to ensure a larger element of trust and authenticity in the cleaning industry.
The female-led startup is already making headway in Mexico and no doubt will soon begin to spread across Latin America in the ongoing quest to protect the region’s vast cleaning industry and workers’ rights. Named as one of Forbes Mexico’s top 30 startups to look out for last year, their socially-aware approach to these services has already taken then to many regional tech startup finals and resulted in many happy cleaners and even cleaner homes.
This article features a partner of an ESPACIO portfolio company.
