Sumeru Equity Partners invests $140M in Cents, an AI-powered operating and payments system for laundry and garment care operators.
New York, March 26, 2026 — Cents, the only fully integrated software, hardware, and payments technology platform built for the laundry industry, today announced the close of a $140 million Series C round led by Sumeru Equity Partners (“Sumeru”) with additional investment from Series B lead Camber Creek. The raise marks the largest single software investment in the laundry vertical to date and accelerates Cents’ mission to bring modern technology to one of America’s most enduring and underserved small business sectors.
With over 90,000 retail laundry businesses and millions of shared laundry rooms in multi-family communities across the U.S., the laundry services industry is an essential everyday service poised for technological transformation. The Cents platform combines AI- native business management software, proprietary hardware, and integrated payments to give business owners powerful tools to operate and scale, and deliver best-in-class experiences for their customers.
“Owning a laundry business is one of the purest expressions of the American entrepreneurial dream, and provides an essential service woven into the fabric of our everyday lives. These operators — from first-generation owners to multi-unit operators, community anchors to tech-driven innovators — all share the same relentless drive,” said Alex Jekowsky, Co-Founder & CEO of Cents. “I couldn’t be more thrilled to partner with Sumeru to invest deeper in our industry and to bring a level of innovation, support, and service that these operators deserve.”
Sumeru and Camber Creek’s investment will fuel the company’s next phase of growth, including accelerating the Cents AI-powered product suite, deepening investments in support and customer experience, expanding its product line for laundromats and dry cleaners, and doubling down on its partnership with route operators and equipment distributors. The raise also positions Cents to further invest in new and innovative payment hardware infrastructure — a proprietary technology that will create greater affordability and accessibility to modernized payment experiences for customers.
“Alex, Gilli, and the Cents team have built the go-to operating system for modern laundry and garment care,” said Sumeru Growth Partner Chris Litster and Principal Nathan Stanley. “This is a critical, global industry that has benefited from Cents’ innovation in digitizing operations and payments technology so operators can run their businesses better around the clock. Cents took an operator-first mindset and invested heavily to build its category-defining product suite — enabling laundry and garment care SMBs to grow, manage, and understand their businesses like never before. We are excited to partner with the company and look forward to seeing what the team builds next for this growing customer base.”
Cents will also welcome Sumeru Managing Partner & Co-Founder Sanjeet Mitra to the board of directors as part of the investment.
About Cents
Cents is the leading all-in-one platform to manage your laundry business, providing everything owners and operators need to grow, manage, and understand their business. Trusted by over 4,500 laundromat locations that process $1 billion in payments annually, Cents offers comprehensive tools for point-of-sale systems, on-machine payments, marketing automation, AI customer service, pickup & delivery services, and more. Designed for laundromats, dry cleaners, and multi-family operations, Cents is committed to driving industry success through innovative technology and strong community support.
About Sumeru Equity Partners
Sumeru Equity Partners (“Sumeru”) provides growth capital at the intersection of people and innovative technology. Sumeru seeks to embolden innovative founders and management teams with capital and scaling partnership. Sumeru has invested over $3 billion in more than fifty platforms and add-on investments across enterprise and vertical technology, data analytics, education technology, infrastructure software and cybersecurity. The firm typically invests in companies throughout North America and Europe. For more information, please visit sumeruequity.com or follow the firm on LinkedIn.
March 26, 2026