London-based on-demand laundry and dry cleaning platform, Laundryheap, has raised $3.5M (approx €2.89M) in its Series A round of funding led by Sova VC. The round also saw participation from SidebySide Partnership.
Use of the funds
The raised capital will help Laundryheap to accelerate its expansion to additional international markets, as well as retaining its focus on sustainable growth and profitability.
Deyan Dimitrov, CEO & founder of Laundryheap, says, “We’ve never focused on the kind of “growth at any cost” expansion that other on-demand businesses have, and our approach to fundraising reflects this. We bootstrapped for the first few years of our operation and didn’t raise our Seed round until we were confident in our model. That’s why this is a really exciting chapter for us.”
He further adds, “We’re raising this Series A because it’s the right time to focus on more rapid expansion and the round will enable us to consolidate our position as the best on-demand laundry platform in the market.”
About Laundaryheap
Founded by Deyan Dimitrov in 2014, Laundryheap offers door-to-door laundry and dry-cleaning services to consumer and business customers, including major brands. The platform allows users to have their laundry collected, washed, ironed, and returned to them in a guaranteed turnaround time of 24 hours.
The company has expanded its services to new markets during 2020, including the USA, Singapore, Sweden, and across the Middle East. It now has a presence across eleven international markets.
Across its US and Asian markets, Laundryheap has seen particularly rapid growth since March. In the US, where the platform is now operational in 5 cities, the business is reporting month-on-month growth between 50 to 100 per cent. As for the Middle East, where Laundryheap has launched in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait, customer growth is hitting between 60 to 80 per cent month-on-month.
During the pandemic, Laundryheap introduced new ‘virus wash’ services and extra-hot cleaning offerings, as well as expanded support for their B2B clients. They’ve also focused on making their supply chain more sustainable through green cleaning techniques and low-carbon transport.
Since its inception, Laundryheap has cleaned over 10 million items of clothing and grown by 1663 per cent in three years.
A brief about the investor
Sova VC is a London-based venture capital firm launched in December 2020 with plans to invest over €50M of capital in building a portfolio of more than 20 early-stage technology companies.
Alexander Chikunov, Partner at Sova VC, says, “Laundryheap stood out to us as a company with excellent unit economics, the ability to scale (even during a difficult period), and an impressive senior leadership team. The startup fits perfectly with our focus on high-potential technology companies with a particular emphasis on B2B and B2B2C marketplaces and software platforms.”
Laundryheap marks Sova VC’s second deal since launch, after investing $2.5M (approx €2M) in the Series B round of translation platform solution Smartcat, a global B2B translation services marketplace.