Listen to this articleCents, the integrated software, hardware, and payments platform for the laundry industry, has closed a $140 million Series C round led by Sumeru Equity Partners with participation from Camber Creek, marking the largest software investment ever in the laundry vertical.
What is Cents and how does it work for laundry businesses?
Cents operates as the only fully integrated software, hardware, and payments platform purpose built for the laundry industry, targeting laundromats, dry cleaners, route operators, and multi family/shared laundry rooms. Its AI native business management system unifies point of sale, machine integration and real time tracking, dynamic pricing, marketing automation, memberships, employee management (tasks to payroll), asset tracking, pickup and delivery logistics (including gig economy options), and AI driven customer service such as an AI receptionist. Proprietary hardware modernizes in-store payments and machine connectivity, while integrated payments streamline transactions across self service and full service operations. The platform delivers dashboards for operational visibility, revenue optimization, and customer insights, turning fragmented, cash heavy SMB workflows into data driven, scalable businesses.
Cents has closed a $140 million Series C funding round, the largest single software investment ever recorded in the laundry technology vertical. The round was led by Sumeru Equity Partners with participation from existing investor Camber Creek (Series B lead). It breaks down into $110 million primary capital for growth and a $30 million secondary tender offer, providing liquidity to early stakeholders while injecting fresh resources into the business. Sumeru Managing Partner and Co-Founder Sanjeet Mitra has joined the board as part of the deal.
The company has reached significant scale ahead of this round: it powers more than 4,500 laundromat locations processing $1 billion in payments annually, supports nearly one in six laundromats in the United States, and enables operations across over 7,000 shared laundry rooms in multi family, hotel, university, and other settings. It also serves a broader network of over 90,000 retail laundry businesses. Retention exceeds 99 percent, reflecting deep product market fit and an operator first approach that prioritizes reliability, service, and measurable ROI for owners.
This Series C arrives roughly 18 months after the $40 million Series B in August 2024 (which brought total prior funding above $77 million) and underscores explosive momentum in a traditionally low tech, $60 billion-plus garment care and repair sector. Laundry businesses represent a quintessential American entrepreneurial vertical (essential, recession resilient, and community anchored) yet historically underserved by modern tools. Cents has positioned itself as the category defining operating system by addressing pain points across operations, payments, customer acquisition, and scaling (including route and multi unit models) that competitors address only piecemeal.
The capital will accelerate several strategic priorities. Primary funds target rapid expansion of the AI powered product suite, including advanced automation for task optimization, dynamic pricing intelligence, and predictive business insights. Additional investments will deepen customer support and experience functions, broaden the product line for laundromats and dry cleaners, strengthen partnerships with route operators and equipment distributors, and innovate new payment hardware to improve affordability and accessibility. These moves aim to modernize the in-store experience, expand market reach through delivery and digital channels, and further entrench Cents as the indispensable platform for SMBs in the space.
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Sumeru’s leadership brings deep vertical SaaS and growth stage expertise, complementing Camber Creek’s proptech focus on real estate adjacent tools. The partnership signals investor conviction that laundry digitization mirrors successful transformations in other fragmented SMB verticals (restaurants via Toast, home services via Jobber). The tender offer component highlights confidence in the company’s trajectory, rewarding early believers while aligning incentives for the next phase of scale.
For Cents, this round cements its leadership in an enduring industry ripe for transformation. With proven traction at scale, high retention, and a founder-led team deeply embedded in the laundry community (CEO Alex Jekowsky has described the mission as rooted in “love of laundry” and support for first generation entrepreneurs living the American dream), the company is now equipped to drive industry wide modernization. AI advancements will automate routine tasks, optimize revenue, and deliver richer insights; hardware innovations will lower barriers to connected experiences; and expanded partnerships will accelerate adoption across independent operators and larger networks alike. The result is a more resilient, efficient, and customer centric laundry ecosystem, elevating small business owners who power an essential daily service while creating substantial long term value in a vertical that has long awaited its defining technology platform.
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