Clothing Care Innovator Has Grown 350% Year­-over­-Year; Will Expand Services and Launch New Geographies with Funding Led by Javelin Venture Partners

Rinse, a consumer service that combines the high quality care your clothes deserve with the convenience, simplicity, and dependability your busy schedule demands, today announces a $6 million Series A funding round. The latest round is led by Javelin Venture Partners.

Other participants in the round include Arena Ventures, CAA Ventures, Accelerator Ventures, Expansion VC, Structure Capital, Otter Rock Capital, and Base Ventures. The Company has raised $9.5 million to date.

Rinse will use the funding to expand its service offering to provide the highest quality care for any item found in your closet. It will also invest in growing its existing markets and expanding its service to new geographies. Additionally, Alex Gurevich (Partner at Javelin Venture Partners) is joining the Board of Directors with existing board member Paige Craig (Partner at Arena Ventures).

“The team has done a phenomenal job creating a magical customer experience and building a very loyal customer base in San Francisco and Los Angeles. We’re very impressed with the strong growth and best­-in­-class customer retention rates they have seen. We’re excited to replicate that across the country and build an incredibly strong national brand,” said Alex Gurevich, Partner at Javelin Venture Partners.

“We invest in amazing founders and teams and this is the best team in the space, hands down. They are laser focused on quality and building an amazing customer experience, which shows in how much their customers love their service,” said Paige Craig, partner at Arena Ventures.

Rinse takes care of every aspect of cleaning clothes, with services that include Dry Cleaning, Launder & Press, Wash & Fold, Hang Dry, Repairs, Leather Cleaning, and it even takes Clothing Donations. The Company launched in three zip codes in San Francisco in September 2013 and has since expanded to cover all of San Francisco and a large portion of Los Angeles.

When Rinse launched, it made a couple key decisions that were viewed as contrarian at the time, but have proven to be prescient. First, it chose to employ (W­2) all of its drivers (“Valets”) at a time when the majority of service start­ups were classifying their delivery staff as independent contractors (1099). In addition, Rinse resisted early pressures of being an “on-­demand” service and instead chose to develop a model grounded in predictability, reliability, and quality. “We realized early on that Uber was solving an acute pain point. When you need a taxi, you need it now, and being on-­demand is the right answer to remove that friction. Rinse is solving a chronic pain point. You always need to take care of your clothes, and the best way to make that a seamless process is through a predictable schedule, amazing service, and a dedication to quality,” said Ajay Prakash, co­founder and CEO of Rinse.

“There are a ton of pain points when it comes to clothing care. We refer to it as ‘death by a thousand cuts.’ Our mission is to remove those pain points for our customers and provide the highest quality cleaning, all while driving a steady stream of volume to our local cleaning partners,” said James Joun, co­-founder and COO of Rinse, who grew up in the Dry Cleaning business. Each cleaning partner Rinse works with goes through a thorough vetting process designed by Joun to ensure the best results for Rinse customers.

“We’ve been blown away by the growth and loyalty we have seen in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Rinse has become a deeply embedded part of our customers’ weekly routines,” said Prakash. “We’re thrilled with the investors we have on board supporting Rinse and are working hard to become a household name.”