{"id":338059,"date":"2017-04-11T22:47:16","date_gmt":"2017-04-11T14:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1475300"},"modified":"2017-04-11T22:47:16","modified_gmt":"2017-04-11T14:47:16","slug":"cleanly-raises-a-5m-series-a-to-bring-profitability-to-the-on-demand-laundry-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/cleanly-raises-a-5m-series-a-to-bring-profitability-to-the-on-demand-laundry-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleanly raises a $5M Series A to bring profitability to the on-demand laundry space"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Cleanly<\/a>, the on-demand laundry and dry cleaning service started in NYC, has raised $5M in Series A funding. The startup had previously raised $2.3M in seed funding<\/a> after participating in YC in 2015.<\/p>\n

The round was led by AddVenture, with participation from returning investors Initialized Capital and\u00a0Altair Capital and Millhouse Capital as a new investor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since Cleanly launched\u00a0two years ago the on-demand space has cooled down considerably. There\u2019s been an increased focus on profitability and difficulty to raise funding throughout the space, and some companies have had to shut down entirely \u2013 including on-demand laundry competitor Washio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even with\u00a0a fresh round of funding,\u00a0these difficulties aren\u2019t lost on Cleanly. So the startup is especially focused on\u00a0profitability and making sure they won\u2019t suffer the same fate as other on-demand startups.<\/p>\n

One major way they are hoping to achieve this is by a slow and methodical expansion process.\u00a0So right now the startup is only live in 3 cities \u2013\u00a0New York CIty, Brooklyn and Washington D.C. They\u2019re making money in New York and about to break even in D.C, which is the most recent addition.<\/p>\n

And while much of the new funding will go to geographic expansion, with San Francisco next, there\u2019s not necessarily any rush for\u00a0Cleanly to expand before they\u00a0can maintain\u00a0sustainable\u00a0margins in each new city.<\/p>\n

For example, one of the reasons they expanded to Washington D.C early on is because there\u2019s a disproportional amount of suits being dry\u00a0cleaned (versus fluff and fold laundry) compared to other cities. This means higher average orders, which help\u00a0offset expensive delivery costs and ultimately improve the overall margins for the city.<\/p>\n

The startup is also starting to work with rental buildings in New York and other cities. Trying to service\u00a0many users in one building dramatically cuts\u00a0down on delivery costs, and is a no brainer in a city like New York.<\/p>\n

In an effort to save on delivery costs Cleanly has also slightly altered the on-demand model \u2013 the startup only picks up and delivers laundry for a few hours in the morning and at night. Logistically this makes sense \u2013 most of us aren\u2019t home during the day, and there\u2019s no reason to pay drivers to sit around just in case one or two orders comes in during the afternoon.\u00a0Because unlike food delivery there\u2019s no urgent rush for dry cleaning \u2013 having it picked up at 7pm instead of 2pm isn\u2019t going to significantly delay the turnaround time, and could provide the cost savings that Cleanly\u00a0needs to stay profitable.<\/p>\n

Cleanly is also shying away from paid user acquisition for the time being, again preferring to focus on hammering down margins. Burning cash by subsidizing user\u2019s on-demand purchases has killed startups before, and is something Cleanly wants to navigate cautiously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" Cleanly, the on-demand laundry and dry cleaning service started in NYC, has raised $5M in Series A funding. The startup had previously raised $2.3M in seed funding after participating in YC in 2015. The round was led by AddVenture, with participation from returning investors Initialized Capital and\u00a0Altair Capital and Millhouse Capital as a new investor.\u00a0 Since Cleanly launched\u00a0two years ago… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[59,66,26],"class_list":["post-338059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-media","tag-techcrunch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338059\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}