South Korea’s same-day laundry service startup Laundrygo said Tuesday it had raised a 17 billion won ($13.9 million) series B round funding from multiple venture capital houses, amid growing demand for daily life services offered without physical contact in the pandemic era.

New investors in the latest round include Korea Investment Partners, Aju IB Investment, KT Investment, Samsung Venture Investment, DS Asset Management. Existing investors Altos Ventures and Hana Ventures also joined the round.

“Now, 99 percent of 4.5 trillion won laundry orders in Korea are made offline, but we are anticipating a swift transition of the trend as consumers are likely to turn to a more convenient means of laundry orders via mobile apps,” Kim Keun-ho, executive director at Korea Investment Partners, said in a statement.

The news came a year after it fetched a 6.5 billion won series A funding in May 2019.

Laundrygo said it will use the proceeds to improve user experience of its mobile app and the quality of laundry pickup and delivery service.

Launched in March 2019, Laundrygo’s service has offered dry cleaning and wet cleaning services for clothes and bed sheets. When a user places a laundry order, a Laundrygo deliveryman will pick up the laundry in an individually designated basket and deliver it back to the user within 24 hours. The service is available in Seoul and parts of Gyeonggi Province in Ilsan and Pangyo.

By Son Ji-hyoung (consnow@heraldcorp.com)