Cents raises $140M to build the operating system for America's laundromats
What's the deal? Laundry technology startup Cents has raised $140M in a Series C led by Sumeru Equity PartnersDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, with participation from existing backer Camber CreekDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
The New York-based company claims to be the only fully integrated software, hardware, and payments platform built for the laundry industry — powering more than 4,500 laundromat locations that process $1B in payments annually. The raise is the largest single software investment in the laundry vertical to date.
Founded by Alex JekowskyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Gilli CherrinDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Cents powers nearly one in six US laundromats and over 7,000 shared laundry rooms in multi-family buildings. Its platform combines point-of-sale systems, machine payment hardware, pickup and delivery tools, marketing automation, and an AI receptionist. More than 99% of customers have stayed on the platform.
Why now? The US laundry services industry has more than 90,000 retail locations, most of them small, independent operators running on outdated technology or none at all. Cents is betting this fragmented, cash-heavy sector is ripe for the same software-and-payments consolidation that has already swept through restaurants, retail, and fitness.
The new capital will fund AI product development, new payment hardware, and expansion into adjacent garment care categories — dry cleaners, tailors, and cobblers.
What could go wrong? Vertical software plays in fragmented small business markets are hard to scale — operators tend to be price-sensitive and slow to adopt new technology. Winning one in six laundromats is impressive, but getting to the next four in six is a different challenge.
Laundry businesses also operate on thin margins and high capital intensity, which limits how much operators can spend on software and hardware subscriptions.
The signal: Cents is the latest example of vertical software companies going deep into unglamorous, overlooked industries — a playbook that has worked in plumbing, pest control, and pool service. The $140M raise signals investors see laundry the same way: a large, stable, underserved market where a well-positioned platform can become the operating system for an entire industry.
Sumeru, which has deployed over $3B across vertical and enterprise software, is a natural fit — it specialises in exactly this kind of category-defining play.
Sources:
Cents
Cents
Sumeru Equity Partners
PR Newswire
FinSMEs
FinTech Global
TechStartups
Image credit:
Cents
J.V.
