The Laundry Chute LLC (TLC), a Pittsburgh-based laundry services provider that primarily pairs students on college campuses who need their clothes cleaned with other students who are willing to clean them, announced that it has been acquired by Melville, New York-based CSC ServiceWorks Co.
James Janis, the company's CEO and co-founder, declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal.
Janis said the startup, which was also co-founded by Chief Technology Officer David Conklin, Chief Operating Officer Crystal Hall and board member Rob Young, will now be referred to as The Laundry Chute, a CSC ServiceWorks Co. He and a few other members of the startup's executive team will serve as consultants to CSC, a company that offers residential and commercial forms of laundry services as well as the XactAir self-serve air providing business for vehicle tires.
"We're very pleased, very happy to be part of the CSC family of companies, and we're definitely excited about working with their vast network nationwide to provide an impact far beyond what we could do as a smaller startup," Janis said. "CSC really identified the wash-dry-fold as an extremely high-growth market and a very synergistic market for the core competency of their business, utilizing the infrastructure of washers and dryers that they have nationwide, and taking our strong technology background and consumer services experiences to pair the two to mutual benefit."
Janis declined to disclose TLC's revenue or current customer and laundry processor count, the latter of which it employed as contractors. In September 2019, the startup had about 200 University of Pittsburgh students registered as laundry processors and about 1,600 other students registered as customers. It maintains operations in several of the country's largest states including California, New York, Texas and Florida, among others.
TLC's primary business comes from those who used its patented smart lockers, which offer students or other users of its platform a space to drop off and secure bags of their clothes that need to be cleaned. These lockers are often installed in or near a laundry facility and allow other students to then sign-up and wash the clothes in a locker for a set price per bag, which fluctuates depending on the local supply and demand of the services. Customers and laundry processors can access the lockers with the TLC platform available via a mobile app on their smartphones.
For Janis, the acquisition will ideally serve as validation for others who are looking for success in Pittsburgh's startup community.
"You don't have to be Duolingo to have a big success, you don't have to have an IPO. You can do it, and Pittsburgh is a great place to do it," Janis said. "More people need to be thinking that way and be embracing of the resources we have in our backyard, the infrastructure, the support and quite frankly, the whole Pittsburgh business community. I think we still have a lot of work to do, but I felt it was important to spread this story and hopefully it inspires other entrepreneurs to take an idea and run with it."
According to a company press release, CSC's acquisition of TLC will support its existing and expanded technology-enabled services for its customers in the years to come.
"Our clients see the tremendous value in this new amenity and the positive impact it has on their students and residents who lead very busy lives," CSC CEO Mark Hjelle said in the release. "These days, people want to save time, especially when it comes to tasks like laundry. We are very excited to bring this new offering to market for the clients and consumers that we serve."
