Charlotte startup 2ULaundry just took a huge leap forward.
The company — which picks up customers’ laundry and returns it cleaned, dried and folded — closed on a $400,000 seed round of funding late last week, co-founder Dan D’Aquisto said. This is a big deal for a B2C company in a competitive space.
The company launched 9 months ago and has grown quickly.
The idea grew out of a class project co-founder Alex Smereczniak started at Wake Forest University. Today, 2ULaundry has about 1,000 users on the platform, including some big names like Charles Johnson and Mike Tolbert of the Carolina Panthers.
Photo by 2ULaundry via Facebook
The seed round was led by Full Tilt Capital out of Raleigh.
Several angel investors also put in money. 2ULaundry received term sheets from a number of other established venture capital firms as well.
Money will be split between hiring, technology and marketing.
Part of the funding will go toward expanding the 11 person staff. The company will also build out the user experience, supply chain and back end — and invest in marketing.
A key part of the strategy will be to focus on relationships with businesses — who can offer 2ULaundry as an employee perk — and apartment communities who offer the service to their residents.
One thing they won’t be doing: building an app. The company uses a text-based platform that is working well, D’Aquisto said.
