CHICAGO — In March, Starchup and Laundry Locker Inc DBA Drop Locker announced that they have entered into a strategic agreement to license Drop Locker’s patents and other intellectual property related to the storage, pick-up and delivery of dry cleaning, laundry and household items to lockers and secured locations.
The agreement will allow Starchup to integrate the locker-based delivery tools into its point of sale (POS) system and will extend the rights to use Drop Locker’s equipment to Starchup customers, through use of their software.
With this agreement, Drop Locker also becomes the exclusive supplier of lockers to Starchup, and be named the preferred locker supplier to Starchup’s POS users.
“Starchup customers have been interested in locker-based delivery for a while,” says Starchup CEO and Co-Founder Nick Chapleau. “That interest deepened through the COVID-19 pandemic as contactless delivery solutions became necessary. As an industry innovator ourselves, Starchup appreciates and respects IP rights and worked with the team at Drop Locker to provide these best-in-class solutions to our customers.”
“Drop Locker has long admired the work that Starchup is doing” Drop Locker CEO W. Tad Jenkins says. “We are pleased to be working with the team at Starchup as they expand the already impressive suite of tools in their product offering, especially as demand for contactless and convenient delivery solutions continues to increase.”
Lockers can provide extension of a dry cleaner’s business, making it more convenient for customers to get laundry done by adding physical presence to locations where they live, work, exercise and do other activities. Laundry lockers can be found in offices, parking garages, apartment complexes or universities. Retail locations, such as pharmacy and grocery stores, have also installed laundry lockers serviced by the local cleaner as a convenience to their customers. As a benefit to the cleaner, lockers allow them to extend their hours of availability to their customers 24/7.
“We see this partnership as a win-win,” Chapleau says. “Starchup software users can tap into Drop Locker’s unparalleled expertise in locker-based delivery, as both an operator and supplier. Consistent with our founding mission, this agreement allows Starchup to continue its work providing technology solutions to cleaners and laundromats to expand and grow their businesses. This is one of many future moves we’ll be making on behalf of our customers.”
“(Starchup’s) appreciation for our technology is a shining example of how the laundry and dry cleaning industry can partner to innovate and grow, responsibly, together while providing the best tools possible for our collective cleaner partners and the best convenience and experiences to our end-user customers,” Jenkins says.
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