South African on-demand laundry service mobile application Just Laundry has launched a crowdfunding campaign via The People’s Fund in a bid to raise ZAR7.2 million (US$520,000) to expand across the entire country.
Disrupt Africa reported in February 2016 on the launch of Just Laundry in Johannesburg, allowing customers to book their laundry and have it collected, cleaned and delivered to their door in 24 hours.
Until now primarily operating in Gauteng, the startup is looking to expand to the entire country by setting up a franchise in each province. The total cost of this expansion is ZAR7.2 million (US$520,000), and Just Laundry is looking to raise that funding via a campaign on The People’s Fund, an asset-backed crowdfunding platform.
The startup, which was funded to the tune of ZAR240,000 (US$17,000) by the crowd last year and has already started paying this back at 107 per cent of the predicted performance, doubled its revenue to ZAR1.3 million (US$94,000) in the last financial year, and is now giving its customers the chance to own up to 40 per cent of the company simply by buying credit to use its service.
People are able to buy a coupon to use the Just Laundry service from as little as ZAR100 (US$7) on the campaign on The People’s Fund, with Just Laundry giving away one share in the business for each ZAR100 coupon sold. In total, 72,000 shares are available to the crowd.
