Today I’m excited to announce that Rinse has closed a $14mm Series B, led by Partech Ventures, along with continued support from Javelin VP, Arena Ventures, and several other existing investors. I am really proud of our team for their hard work and dedication to date, and we are excited for the next phase in our journey. As we continue on our path to build the first and largest national brand in clothing care, I wanted to take this opportunity to look back on how we got here.

Why Rinse?

In early 2013, my co-founder James Joun came to me with the idea of starting a company in clothing care and the story of Rinse began. James has been one of my best friends since college (I’ve known him for 18 years now), and has always been someone I viewed as a potential co-founder. He also had the unique advantage of being raised in dry cleaning. He wanted to start a company to help address the pain points of existing dry cleaners, which he understood intimately. At the same time, I was already working on a few ideas to remove friction from the customer experience of necessary and recurring services. Over breakfast at Union Cafe in Cow Hollow, Rinse was born.

Since the early days, the consistent theme James and I have heard from both customers and cleaning partners alike is that they are experiencing significant friction.

We now refer to the friction customers experience in clothing care as “death by a thousand cuts” — there isn’t just one big point of friction we need to remove, but many points across the entire customer experience. For example, in dry cleaning, (1) you don’t actually know who’s a good cleaner, you just go to the nearest one; (2) you can’t assess quality until after you get your clothes back; (3) cleaners typically operate during normal business hours and are closed on weekends, which makes pickup and drop-off inconvenient; (4) there is limited transparency, limited customer service, and limited technology-enablement.

Cleaners also experience their fair share of friction. Most cleaners are underutilized and do not know how to drive more volume. Historically, foot traffic was enough to acquire customers, but times have changed. When customers do walk in, there is limited incentive to invest in customer service or technology because the main focus is on paying the bills.

With Rinse, our goal has always been to remove the friction on both sides. For our customers, we are systematically dismantling the “thousand cuts” by providing one simple solution for everything in their closet. For our cleaning partners, we send a predictable and steady stream of volume and enable them with technology to help ensure the highest quality cleaning for our customers.

“Smart scheduling” in an on-demand world

Our needs-focused, solution-agnostic approach has heavily influenced the decisions we have made as we have built Rinse. At times, our approach has been at odds with the consensus view among startups, but it’s always been aligned with our customers’ needs.

We launched in 2013, at a time when it seemed like every consumer service start-up chose to be “on-demand,” due in large part to Uber’s success. Rinse took the approach of focusing on “smart scheduling” and quality instead of “on-demand” and speed. We realized that Uber was solving an acute pain point — if you need a taxi, you need it now — where an on-demand model made sense to remove the friction. Rinse, however, is solving a chronic pain point — you always have dirty clothes — and customers almost unanimously prefer quality over speed, and crave consistency and predictability.

We decided early on to classify our Valets as employees (W-2) instead of independent contractors (1099). Our Valets are the front lines of our customer experience and it’s important to us that we invest in their training and development. We were also very clear in our approach to create mutually beneficial, long-term relationships with cleaning partners, rather than moving towards vertical integration and operating our own facilities.

These decisions are core to who we are as a company today. We have seen the highs and lows that the “on-demand” world has experienced (including our main venture-backed competitor shutting down), and have remained steadfast in our focus on the customer, our team, and our partners throughout.

Why we raised a Series B

We raised our Series B to accelerate our path to becoming the first and largest national brand in clothing care.

Rinse has grown at double-digit month-over-month rates since inception. Our customers love our service, which has led to a loyal customer base. We have built a business with attractive economics to help ensure long-term sustainability. We are also getting stronger with each new city. Rinse Washington, DC, which launched in late 2016, has seen 40% month-over-month growth and was contribution margin positive after only three months on the ground.

We are more confident and excited than ever that we are moving in the right direction to becoming a household name.

We are fortunate to have worked with world-class investors along the way who believe in our team and our approach, including Javelin Ventures, Arena Ventures, Accelerator Ventures, Structure Capital, and several founder/CEO angels who have walked in our shoes before. Our Series B is no different and we are thrilled to welcome Partech Ventures to the Rinse family.

What’s next for Rinse?

With our Series B, we will continue to drive strong growth in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC, while also expanding to several new markets. We will also grow our team. We are actively recruiting for key roles in Marketing, Product, Operations, Technology, and Customer Experience, in addition to always looking for great Valets and cleaning partners.

Our success to date is a reflection of our team’s hard work; our cleaning partners’ dedication to quality; our Valets’ work on the front lines of the customer experience; our investors’ incredible support; and our customers, who use us, love us, challenge us, and continue to make us better.

What’s next for Rinse? We will continue to do right by everyone involved by staying true to our core values, investing in the growth and development of our team, and creating a world-class service that our customers will enjoy for many years ahead.

At Rinse, your health and the environment matter. That's why we take the following actions to make sure that it’s not just your clothes that are treated with care.
 

1. Rinse is perc-free

Historically, the most widely used solvent in dry cleaning has been perchloroethylene (“perc”), but this solvent is a known carcinogen and can have a hazardous impact on the environment and individuals’ health.

An estimated 80% of dry cleaners still use it, but Rinse only works with dry cleaning partners who use environmentally friendly cleaning processes, and none of our partners use perc.

Wait, why would anyone use perc?

The short answer is that it’s a very effective cleaning agent and it is accepted as a part of the industry. The environmentally friendly alternatives to cleaning with perc, are effective, but they take more time and effort on the part of the cleaner, which means it costs them more.

When you support cleaners that abstain from using perc, you are helping the entire industry move in a more environmentally friendly direction.

Read more about Perc and Rinse’s Green Cleaning Practices.
 

2. Rinse accepts clothing donations

We’ll collect any clothing that you’d like to donate and make sure it gets to a charitable organization, rather than ending up in landfill.

Did you know that the average American throws away up to 81 pounds of laundry per year? And that one in three of people surveyed said that they threw their old clothes out because it was easier that recycling or donating?

Many people don’t realize the true cost and value of their clothes—just creating a single t-shirt can take up to 700 gallons of water. By donating or recycling your old clothes instead of throwing them away, you are not just helping your community and the charitable organizations that receive them but you are making a huge impact on the environment!

What you can do - When you have clothes you’d like to donate, just put them in a separate bag (don’t put them in your Rinse bags!) and your Rinse Valet will collect them during your next pickup or delivery. We then make sure that your clothes are given to a local charity and stay out of the landfill!

3. Rinse uses less water and less energy

Our cleaning partners use high-efficiency washing machines which means up to 50% less water is used when compared to traditional, at-home washing machines, resulting in millions of gallons of water saved each year.

Additionally, cold water washing not only keeps your clothes looking better for longer, but it saves energy. Combined with high-speed spin cycles which reduces the amount of time clothes need to spend in the dryer, Rinse is able to significantly reduce the amount of water, electricity, and carbon emissions associated with cleaning.

4. Rinse uses biodegradable poly bags and recycles hangers

Traditional Dry Cleaning and Wash & Fold practices use plastic to ensure your clean clothes stay clean when they’re delivered to you. Rinse does this, too, however, much of the plastic wrapping that Rinse uses is biodegradable. For the portion that isn’t we’re happy to collect the plastic and recycle it for you.
 

What you can do - At your next pickup or delivery, give your Rinse Valet any unwanted wire hangers and the non-biodegradable portion of plastic used to protect your Rinse orders so Rinse can recycle them.
 

Rinse is committed to doing what we can to help and reduce our environmental footprint.

We use highly-efficient washing machines, which compared to traditional washing machines found inside most homes and apartments, conserve significantly more water and can fit more laundry inside. Rinse has helped to save 10's of millions of gallons of water and counting!  

We’ll also collect any gently used clothing you wish to donate during any regular Rinse pickup or delivery to make it easier for our customers to recycle their unused clothing. By doing so, we help our customers reduce waste — decreasing the amount of clothing that ends up in the landfill and preventing the extra water usage required to make new clothing.

Since 2013, Rinse has helped to donate over 10 tons of clothing to local community members in need! We don’t just recycle clothing either, we also recycle hangers and plastic wrapping.

Additionally, we practice green dry cleaning. Meaning, our cleaning partners do not use any toxic or harmful cleaning solvents or detergents. At Rinse, we have a strict no perc policy so rest assured your dry cleaning is perc-free.

Not only are we consistently doing our part to help reduce our environmental footprint but we are also proud to be the leading national clothing care provider helping to care for some of the top brands in fashion, including those who share in our mission to reduce waste and build an environmentally sustainable business.

We’ve identified some of the top brands our customers wear and wanted to highlight what they are doing to promote sustainability.

Our Customer's Top 3 Brands and What They're Doing For The Environment

1. Banana Republic

Over the past year, Rinse has cleaned more Banana Republic garments than any other brand — our customers love Banana Republic! Turns out, we love them too because of their commitment to building a sustainable brand.

In September 2019, the brand laid out a plan to use more sustainable materials and reduce waste. By 2023, Banana Republic plans to source and use more sustainable cotton and fibers. And by 2025, the brand is aiming to save at least 20% of water during their manufacturing process and shift towards using “cleaner chemistry” throughout their supply chain.

Fun Fact: Since 2018, Rinse has cleaned more shirts from Banana Republic than any other brand.

2. J. Crew

The second most popular brand among our customer-base is J. Crew. Like Banana Republic, J. Crew has a number of initiatives and protocols in place to help limit their impact on the environment.

For example, the shopping bags at J. Crew are now made from 100% recycled paper. J. Crew is also now sourcing 97% of its paper used for catalogs from sources certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The company has outlined a new policy for sourcing high-quality, recycled paper from verified sources.

Furthermore, since 2002, J. Crew has focused on making all of its brick-and-mortar stores and offices energy efficient by installing energy management systems that allow each building to optimize the heating, cooling, and lighting systems.

Fun Fact: Rinse cleaned more scarves from J. Crew than any other brand between 2018 and 2019.

3. Brooks Brothers

Brooks Brothers is another top brand our customers seem to like. Rinse is proud to say that we share Brooks Brothers’ mission when it comes to helping local communities and providing clothing donations to those in need.

Since their inception nearly 200 years ago, Brooks Brothers has been investing in and helping local communities throughout the country. The company has partnered with several local and national non-profit organizations, including a 15-year partnership with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital joining them in the fight against childhood cancer.

Fun Fact: Rinse has cleaned nearly 6x more Brooks Brothers shirts than pants over the last year.

Moving can be a stressful life event. So stressful in fact, it makes the American Institute of Stress’s Stress Inventory List.

Between coordinating logistics and nervously watching movers handle fragile and prized possessions, any mover deserves a little diversion at the end. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the top 8 most practical and considerate housewarming gifts!

1. New Doormat

Great for first-time homeowners, a new welcome mat is an easy gift to pick up. It’s almost a no brainer to have but you’d be surprised as to how many people overlook getting a new doormat after relocating to a new home especially after apartment life.

Get creative by adding a custom phrase that resonates with the personalities of the home’s occupants or keep it simple with a classic “Welcome”.

2. Wine Decanter with Glasses

A wine decanter is ideal for wine connoisseurs and friends who enjoy hosting parties and guests. After a handful of get-togethers, and especially after a move, it’s very likely that a wine glass or two needs to be replaced. You can never have enough glasses in the house so it’s a perfect gift idea to bring if you’re attending a housewarming party—break in the new house with a welcoming toast!

3. Plants or Flowers

An easy way to brighten up a new space and make it feel like home is by adding flowers or plants. A colorful and unimposing option (ideal if you are unsure of the new mover’s decor and esthetic), we recommend getting a nice flower arrangement.

If you want something that will last a bit longer and know your friends or family wouldn’t mind the added responsibility, then go with an indoor plant. Both plants and flowers can tie a room together and their mere presence can help alleviate stress.

4. Decorative Pillows or Blankets

There’s nothing like a soft blanket and comfy pillows. Help add warmth to the a new home by getting a soft throw blanket or a couple of couch or floor pillows. If you don’t know the color scheme yet, it’s wise to select a neutral color blanket. As always with gifts of personal taste, it’s courtious to include a gift receipt so your new mover can exchange your gift, if needed.

5. Robot Vacuum

If you’re working with a larger budget we suggest splurging for a robot vacuum. By letting the vacuum roam room-to-room, you’ll save your loved ones from an ongoing household chores and give them more time to do what they love. Take it from us, we’re experts in the realm of chore alleviation!

6. Knife & Cutting Board Set

We love this combination because it’s very likely something that no one else will bring, while also a helpful, and potentially beautiful gift. Because cutting boards are so easy to store, and extremely useful when hosting larger groups, it’s an item that’s okay to have multiple of. In terms of knives, if your loved ones already have a set there’s no harm and upgrading them to a sharper one. It’s also very practical for a housewarming party - easier to cut and prepare the snacks!
 

7. Aroma Diffuser

Help relieve post-moving stress with an aroma diffuser. An aroma diffuser uses essential oils and retains their therapeutic properties as opposed to diffusers or fragrance that burn them away. There are several options when it comes to color so you’ll be sure to find one that matches the interior decor.

8. Bluetooth Speaker

Bring the music to the housewarming party by getting your loved ones a Bluetooth speaker. Nowadays, you can pick one up for under $50 and even Amazon’s Alexa-compatible 3rd generation Echo is fairly affordable. With multiple uses, it’s one gift we can’t recommend enough.

These are just some of favorite housewarming gift ideas. All-in-all, it’s hard to go wrong with a gift for the heart. In the case of housewarming gifts, it really is the thought that counts.