YJ Capital invests $3.4m in Japanese online laundry service
WhitePlus - the Japanese start-up behind an online laundry service called Lenet - has managed to raise JPY408 million ($3.4 million) from Yahoo! Japan's corporate investment arm, YJ Capital.
Set up in 2009, Lenet allows users to request laundry services via the Lenet website and app, at which point their laundry is collected from their home, cleaned and returned. It has now raised over JPY700 million having previously received JPY300 million from Jafco in August, 2013.
The company - which has 10 partnered laundry factories -covers the whole country, offering free pickup and delivery for orders over JPY3,000.By outsourcing its delivery to national logisitics firm Yamato Transport, and by centralizing its cleaning operations, the company has been able to price its services only slightly above traditional mid-market laundry services.
According to a release, the company's user base have more than doubled in the past 12 months going from around 46,500 in December, 2013, to more than 105,400 by December, 2014. This latest injection of funds will be used by White Plus to improve services and hire new people.
In addition to its core laundry service, the company also three specialist services: Lenet Futon, Lenet Kutsu, and Lenet Hokan, which specialise in mattress laundering, footwear laundering, and laundry storage, respectively.
The company also has an online crowd storage service called Hiroe, the beta version of which was developed using the previous round of funding. The website allows users to order storage space online for oversized household items, which are picked up and stored for a monthly fee and returned upon request. Costs are kept low as different users share warehouse space as opposed to hiring individual lock-ups.
Last month YJ Capital launched its second fund with a corpus of JPY20 billion ($169 million). Yahoo! Japan is provided the bulk of the capital - JPY19 billion - while the GP putting in the rest. This its second investment,;the fund backed Indonesia fashion flash sale site VIP Plaza within days of it launched.
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