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SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cents, the leading business management and in-store operations platform enabling laundromat owners to start, manage, and grow their business, has announced a $4.25M financing round to power the nearly 80 thousand garment care businesses across the country. This round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Newfund Capital, Riverpark Ventures, and 1517 Fund. Jason Finger, founder of Seamless and Chairman of Upper90, also participated in the round.
Leading laundry SaaS platform Cents announces $4.25M seed round to power and support local garment care SMB’s.
Cents is focused on providing a single solution “business in a box” system to power the entire process of laundromat or dry cleaner ownership: POS, delivery, employee management, CRM, revenue reconciliation, pick-up and delivery, and hardware integrations. The proprietary solution Cents offers laundromat owners and operators enables businesses to increase revenue, optimize operational efficiency and expand into new markets with delivery.
“We are privileged to impact the lives of SMB operators whose businesses are an essential service within their community.” says Alexander Jekowsky, Cents Co-Founder and CEO. “We see the ripple effect of supporting our operators; when business owners are able to optimize their operations, their employees are more successful and their customers are happier.”
Software and operational tools have elevated industries like pizza parlors, barber shops and gyms. Laundry is one of the only major main street businesses to be underserved by modern verticalized software. The $40B+ laundry industry has proven to be inelastic as consumer demand continues to stay strong. SMB owners are witnessing the massive shifts in retail operations and are eager to try to get ahead of the curve in their search for software to achieve growth and optimize every aspect of their business.
Cents has been revolutionary for both single and multi-store operators. Peter Stern of Clean Rite Centers, one of the largest laundromat retailers in the US, has seen the impact of Cents “We’ve been utilizing the Cents platform for almost a year and it’s incredible to see how the product continues to develop and help our business. I’ve been able to test new operating models, add on-demand delivery without any cost, and run 40+ stores easier than ever before. Cents is the game changer that our industry has been waiting for.”
The need for innovation in the industry has never been more necessary as Covid-19 has acted as an accelerant to the already fast growing trends. Full-service laundry, pick-up, delivery, touchless payments, and the importance of centralizing operational data and operations have been growing as the pandemic shifts consumer trends and expectations.
While operators find incredible value of the Cents system, in-store employees are the most active daily users. When asked about Cents, Cris Santibañez, store manager and attendant at Laundré in San Francisco said, “As a manager of laundromats, and someone who utilizes the Cents system in-store, it’s great to finally see a platform that is easy to use for my team. I’ve used many different POS/store systems before, but this is the first platform that is as dynamic as I need on the back end, but fast for my associates to pickup.”
Cents has already achieved tremendous growth in the marketplace, powering over a hundred laundromats and dry cleaners across 8 states, with millions of pounds of laundry flowing through its operating system, and expects to be supporting over one thousand stores by the end of the year. Laundry owners and operators have reported major increases in customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, employee engagement, and revenue.
Cents was founded by a unique group of successful entrepreneurs. Co-founders Alexander Jekowsky, Pramod Dabir and Gilli Cherrin have previously built independent software companies within the last five years. They have joined forces and built a team of seasoned SMB tech and SaaS experts to bring their experience, ambition and resources into an underserved market vertical that is ripe for technological innovation.
ABOUT CENTS
Cents is a leading software system creating the first laundry market network through its business-in-a-box SaaS platform. Through Cents, garment care professionals have access to best-in-class software proven to increase operational efficiency and drive greater revenue. By providing effective employee management, revenue tracking, POS, mobile-first digital ordering, on-demand delivery, and more, Cents provides business owners with one platform to run every aspect of their business. To learn more about how Cents works for laundromats, dry cleaners, multi-family/residential, and consumers, visit us at www.trycents.com
