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New financing brings total funding over $77M to empower, support, and drive innovation for small businesses in the $60BN garment care and repair space
New York, NY, August 8th, 2024 - Cents, the largest leading all-in-one business management platform powering the way garment care SMBs grow, manage, and understand their businesses, today announced the close of its $40M Series B funding round. 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 at best-in-class SaaS companies like Toast, Jobber, Squarespace, and Stripe. This round brings the company’s total funding to over $77M. 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.
Launched in 2021, Cents provides POS, online ordering, payments hardware, marketing tools, and business management software for all garment care and vended laundry businesses including laundromats, dry cleaners, alterations, and shared laundry rooms. The platform currently powers over 2,700 retail laundries, about 1 in 14 laundromats in the US, and over 3,500 shared laundry rooms, and is continuing to invest in new product development to serve all garment care businesses with the funding. As the only all-in-one solution for the unique nuances of the laundry industry, the Cents platform makes a meaningful impact on every type of business, whether it’s a mom-and-pop shop, a multi-unit operation, or anything in between.
“Laundry is a critical human need. Local laundry businesses provide an essential service, and these SMBs deserve best-in-class technology and support to provide that service while generating strong ROIs,” said Alex Jekowsky, CEO and Co-founder of Cents. “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.”
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 quickly expanded to launching Cents Dispatch, a modern and accessible online ordering and logistics management platform that included the first-ever facilitation of on-demand delivery via outsourced couriers. As the SaaS products grew, Cents launched Connect, the most integrated hardware device for self-serve payments, installed directly on laundry equipment. For the first time, this suite of products has given laundry operators one platform to power their entire business.
“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,” said 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.”
Cents looks forward to continued expansion this year, including product and geographic growth. Garment service industry operators and owners can visit www.trycents.com to learn more.
About Cents
Cents is a leading business management platform that helps laundry business operators grow, manage, and understand their business. With easy-to-use tools for point-of-sale, on-machine payments, revenue tracking, point-of-sale, and delivery services, Cents provides an all-in-one solution for managing the complexities of a laundry business.
Designed with the unique needs of laundromats, dry cleaners, and multi-family/residential businesses in mind, Cents is the premier solution for entrepreneurs in the garment care industry. At the heart of Cents is a commitment to the industry's success, continually driving laundry businesses forward through ever-improving product solutions and strong community support.
About Camber Creek
Founded in 2011, Camber Creek is an institutional venture capital firm investing in and scaling companies that are transforming the real estate industry. Over the past 13 years, the firm established itself as the premier real estate technology venture firm by consistently delivering industry-leading returns to investors, driving value for its portfolio of start-ups, and generating successful company exits. Today, Camber Creek has nearly $1 billion in assets under management with offices in Washington, DC; New York; and Miami.
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