European Laundry Startups Merge To Dominate UK Market

Laundry service startup Laundrapp announced that it has merged with its biggest competitor, Zipjet, to become the largest on-demand laundry service.

Together, the companies will process over 150,000 items of laundry every month — that’s nearly 2 million clean shirts, skirts and trousers every year.

“It has always been our mission here at Laundrapp to open up our service to as many people as possible. Being a startup we have been able to do this by using clever technology to provide a high-quality laundry service without the associated price tag. To us, the service is a no-brainer for people trying to navigate today’s busy lifestyle,” Lorenzo Franzi, CEO of Laundrapp, wrote in a blog post.

He added that there are plans to expand the service into new regions. As for existing customers, the merger will bring with it an increase in prime-time slots, more customer service availability and better offers, as well as additional future benefits.

“We also know that taking care of the environment is as important to you as it is to us. A further benefit of the integration is that we are able to be more environmentally efficient,” stated Franzi. “One example of this is by being smarter with technology and managing more customers from a single platform we’ll be able to lower the overall number of trips, saving on emissions.”

The merger comes as the European on-demand laundry and dry-cleaning market is estimated to be worth around €20 billion per year. In fact, both Laundrapp and Zipjet have boasted that their revenues have risen more than 30 percent year over year.

“Bringing together two significant operators within the on-demand laundry industry will help lay the foundations for the next wave of investment into technology and infrastructure. Laundrapp aims to put convenience, choice and value at the center of its customer proposition, and we see this transaction as an important step towards building a sector-leading capability,” Oliver Bedford at Hargreave Hale said, according to reports.