NEW YORK — Cents, an all-in-one business management platform, recently announced the close of its $40 million Series B funding round, bringing the company’s total funding to more than $77 million.
The round was led by Camber Creek with participation from previous investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Tiger Global. Additional strategic investors in this round include Tech Pioneer Fund, RXR (RADV), Derive Ventures, Alumni Ventures, as well as executives with SaaS companies like Toast, Jobber Squarespace and Stripe.
Launched in 2021, Cents provides POS, online ordering, payments hardware, and business management software for garment care and vended laundry businesses, including laundromats, dry cleaners, alterations, and all shared laundry rooms.
The platform currently powers over 2,700 retail laundries, or about 1 in 14 laundromats in the US, and more than 3,500 shared laundry rooms. The company states that it is pursuing additional growth with the recent funding.
In addition to the financing, Cents has acquired Laundroworks, a hardware-based payments system powering how consumers pay for laundry at laundromats and shared laundry rooms within multi-family buildings, hotels, universities, and more, to reinforce its existing hardware product line.
“Cents is the clear category leader in serving independent garment care businesses. Their drive for innovation, while staying focused on the needs of SMB’s is second to none,” says Alexandra Nicoletti at Camber Creek, the leading real estate technology venture capital firm. “We see huge opportunities for Cents to continue to provide their game-changing technology for the real estate space. From technology that supports route operators and shared laundry rooms to powering the amenity of laundry for tenants through their network of local laundry businesses, we’re thrilled to be partnering with Cents.”
Upon launch, the platform’s core focus was to centralize the many different revenue streams and operations of a garment care business, including self-serve, wash and fold, dry cleaning, alterations, pickup and delivery, commercial laundry, and more. Cents started with CentsOS, the POS and “nucleus” of laundry operations and expanded to launching Cents Dispatch, an online ordering and logistics management platform that included facilitation of on-demand delivery via outsourced couriers.
As its SaaS products grew, Cents launched Connect, a hardware device for self-serve payments, installed directly on laundry equipment.
“Laundry is a critical human need,” says Alex Jekowsky, CEO and co-founder of Cents. “Local laundry businesses provide an essential service, and these SMBs deserve best-in-class technology to provide that service while generating strong ROIs. We have dedicated ourselves to this industry and the unique needs of our customers. It’s a privilege to have the trust and support of our customers as we’ve continued to grow, and our entire team feels the weight of our responsibility to build innovative solutions that support their business goals. We’re experiencing a true renaissance in the laundry industry. I’m so proud of our team for their tireless dedication and drive to elevate the experience for our operators and their customers.”
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