Oxwash, a British startup that has in recent years applied high-tech processes to reduce the environmental costs of dry cleaners and commercial laundries, has raised £10 million (~$12 million) in Series A funding to expand its footprint nationwide.
Currently the service is available in five UK cities: London, Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol and Manchester, but – with new funding – it is aiming for wider domestic coverage and then looks forward to a US launch.
Oxwash landed a £1.4m seed in 2020 – and has now raised a total of £15.7m since its inception in 2017, including last year from a public equity crowdfunder (which raised it £500,000 from about 320 Crowdcube investors); and through a £2.08 million seed supplement.
The Series A was led by Untitled VC, with existing backer Biz Stone (co-founder of Twitter) also participate, together with Indeed founder Paul Forster, and Holly and Sam Branson. Other returning investors mentioned include Reckitt venture arm Access VC, Pentland Group, Ascension Ventures, Vala Capital and Truesight Ventures. While new investors in the round are 8 Dimension Ventures, System Capital Management and Khimji Ramdas LLC.
Oxwash’s alternative spin on commercial laundry includes a “gentle” “wet clean” technique to replace dry cleaning, using biodegradable detergents (rather than “hard” solvents) — and it also advocates reduced water consumption (claims one saving of 4L per 1kg of clothes washed).
In addition, it uses ozone as a disinfectant to sterilize and deodorize fabrics at lower temperatures than traditional commercial laundry processes.
To ensure economies of scale, the on-demand laundry startup operates its services from a handful of hubs (currently three) — dubbed the “lagoons” service center — using a fleet of cargo e-bikes and electric vehicles for pickup and drop-off. drop offs to minimize CO2 emissions.
In a major development, it announces that it has been awarded B Corporation status – and claims to be the only laundry and wet cleaning company in the world to receive this certification for environmental, social responsibility and transparency standards, which are eco-friendly. -credentials reinforced.
Oxwash customers include both businesses and individuals looking for an on-demand laundry service (think individual Airbnb hosts to NHS trusts). On the B2B side, it says customers are hotels, hospitals, universities, hospitality and circular fashion stores.
In May 2020, Oxwash reported “several hundred” corporate customers and more than 4,000 individual users. The press release doesn’t provide updated numbers (we asked), but it speaks of quadrupling in sales in the past 12 months, and also states that it has achieved “operating profitability” in its three laundry facilities.
The new funding will go towards expanding the UK, with the startup planning to build a massive, centralized laundry facility that it plans to use to serve customers “across the country”.
It’s also planning a US launch (although it talked about European expansion in May 2020 – so presumably it’s reconfigured its international growth plans).
Other financing plans include investments in new methods to further improve the approach, such as acoustic drying, ie using sound waves instead of heat to dry textiles.
It also mentions the possible application of robotics and computer vision for further optimization of its processes.
In addition, Oxwash says it has a goal of completely eliminating scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions from its operations within the next 12 months.
In a statement, CEO Dr. Kyle Grant: “This new funding will primarily be used to develop our technology and to invest deeply in the complete decarbonisation of our own washing process. Up to 30% will be used for expanding our software technology capabilities, 30% for deploying our nationwide processing facility and the remainder for business development and growth.”
“Starting a business just before a global pandemic and economic crisis is no one’s ideal business plan, and as we all know, the needs of consumers and businesses have changed dramatically in recent years. For us, this meant focusing on building a solution that is frictionless for our business customers – the last thing they have to worry about is how their laundry is cleaned.
“Bcorp accreditation confirms our commitment to corporate responsibility and is another assurance to our customers that we do business the right way. It is undoubtedly the most robust certification available to demonstrate our commitment to sustainability and transparency that Oxwash is adopting as a fast-growing company.”
Currently, the startup employs more than 80 people and expects to increase its workforce by 50% over the next year as it looks to expand its services across the country – scaling up from its existing service bases in London, Oxford and Cambridge.
Notably, Oxwash’s delivery drivers and couriers are fully employed (unlike on-demand delivery platforms that rely on the so-called ‘gig economy’ model) – and it also specifies that all staff are paid more than the national living wage .
