WeClean Philippines, a fully integrated laundry service provider headquartered in Metro Manila, announced raising $150,000 from a large family office in South America.
The company also raised $120,000 from DayOne Capital Ventures, a Philippine-based early-stage venture capital firm headed by Keenan Ugarte. In addition to equity, DayOne also provided debt financing to support WeClean’s expansion.
“The funds raised will be deployed towards increasing our branch footprint in Metro Manila. We currently own and operate 10 laundromats and we’ll be acquiring 8-9 laundromats in our deal pipeline,” WeClean Philippines chief operating officer Ignacio Phelan Barroso.
With the fresh funds, WeClean is growing its pickup and delivery vertical and is starting to franchise its laundry business concept, which Barroso said has already generated a lot of interest.
He added that the franchise idea has already generated over 120 leads. Once the economy reopens, WeClean targets to sign up one franchisee a month.
“The time to buy these high-quality laundromats is now. The pandemic has spurred a wave of panic selling of assets in the Philippine retail space. With a potential reopening of the Philippine economy, we could realize margin expansion as a result of increased sales,” Barroso said.
WeClean, which was established in 2017, provides commercial and industrial laundry equipment for entrepreneurs and corporate clients. The company said it facilitates commercial and industrial laundry solutions and provides affordable packages from planning, set up, machine purchase, to installation and support.
On the other hand, DayOne Capital Ventures is an independent Philippine-based private holding company that partners with entrepreneurs across a wide range of industries, with a preference for tech enabled startups at the Seed/Pre-Series A stage.