Oxwash, the UK’s first sustainable on-demand laundry, and the wet-cleaning startup have raised £10 million in Series A funding. With this, the total funding raised by the company accounts for £15.7 million.
A stellar list of investors
The round was led by Untitled VC, the investment firm founded by lead partners Magnus Rausing (Tetra Pak) and Bertie Crawley (ZuluForest). Long-standing supporter Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter (who backed Noh), also returned for the round alongside Indeed founder Paul Forster, and Holly and Sam Branson.
New investors in the round include 8 Dimension Ventures, System Capital Management (Ukraine’s largest VC Fund), and Khimji Ramdas LLC. Many more existing investors chose to partake again, including Reckitt venture arm Access VC, Pentland Group, Ascension Ventures, Vala Capital, and Truesight Ventures.
Oxwash will use the funds to grow the nationwide footprint of its greener state-of-the-art washing process. The funding will also fuel its mission to widen its national footprint ahead of expansion into the USA. Furthermore, the business will be able to build a giant facility that can service clients up and down the country.
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Dr. Kyle Grant, chief executive of Oxwash, said: “This new funding will be used primarily to develop our technology and invest deeply into the complete decarbonization of our proprietary washing process. Up to 30% will be used for expanding our software technology capabilities, 30% for the deployment of our nationwide processing facility, and the remainder for business development and growth.”
Magnus Rausing, the general partner of Untitled VC, said: “Oxwash is a perfect example of a company that is using advanced technology to improve the product while making the world a better place at the same time. By continuing to invest in innovation and bringing the service to more people, there is a huge opportunity here to scale up and take on the traditional laundry sector.”
Re-engineers washing process
Oxwash is the brainchild of ex-NASA scientist and Forbes’s Europe’s 30 under 30 alumni, Dr. Kyle Grant, and Oxford engineer Tom de Wilton in 2017. The startup unveiled its global certification of B Corporation status, touted to be the only laundry and wet-cleaning company that meets exacting standards of environmental, social responsibility, and transparency.
Oxwash re-engineers the entire washing process, introducing technology typically used in space and hospital sterilization. It intends to bring about net-zero carbon emissions to eliminate the environmental impact of existing laundry and dry cleaning processes.
The convenient service uses next-gen ozone technology to deodorize and sanitize fabrics at lower temperatures, and biodegradable chemistry formulation processes to achieve higher than medical-grade disinfection.