Laundrapp, an on-demand laundry service which was touted as the “Uber of dry cleaning”, has been acquired by Inc & Co Group after going into administration last week.
The company went into administration on Friday, with its investors, including Michael Spencer (who invested almost £2 million) and Hambro Perks (which invested around £1.5 million), losing their investments in the start-up.
It was founded in 2015 and provided laundry and dry cleaning services via an app, which clothing collected from customers before being cleaned and returned.
Investors poured over £15 million into Laundrapp over successive funding rounds, but cash flow difficulties saw the company forced into entering administration after investors declined to invest further capital.
Laundrapp appointed corporate restructuring firm FRP Advisory as administrator, with the company’s assets subsequently sold off for reportedly under £1 million.
FRP Advisory said the business would continue trading following the sale. Joint administrator Alastair Massey said Laundrapp “had run into financial difficulty in recent months and without further investment would have been forced to cease trading”.
Regarding the future of the business, Laundrapp aims to capitalise on the continuing exponential growth of the on-demand laundry sector, which is projected to reach worldwide sales of $52 billion by 2022, by launching a new growth strategy.
This will reportedly include a new digital offering of its website and app as well as a high-level customer acquisition and retention strategy.
Last year, Laundrapp had acquired Zipjet, a move that helped to significantly increase its market share.
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