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RB Ventures backs sustainable laundry startup Oxwash

Reckitt Benckiser’s venture arm RB Ventures has backed laundry and dry-cleaning startup Oxwash, which provides laundry services to the Oxford University coronavirus vaccine trial.

RB Ventures is partnering with early-stage start-ups who share its ‘fight for access’, with Oxwash being one of its first investments. Founded in 2017 by former NASA scientist Kyle Grant, Oxwash is using technology and methods that are aiming towards net zero carbon emissions.

The company has raised a total of GBP1.75 million in seed funding so far from RB, TrueSight Ventures, Biz Stone (co-founder of Twitter), Paul Forster (founder of Indeed.com), Founders Factory, Oxford Technology Management and other angel investors.

The capital will be used to support Oxwash’s recent launch into London, as well as to invest further into its proprietary technology platform that powers its logistics and ‘lagoons’ – its washing facilities. The startup plans to expand in North America and Europe in the next 12-18 months.

Fabrice Beaulieu, RB’s EVP of Group Marketing Excellence and Category Development Organisation Hygiene, will be taking a position on the Oxwash board in connection with the deal, in order to help the company to achieve its sustainability goals. 

Oxwash has had to adapt quickly during the Covid-19 outbreak, flipping its entire business model on its head and augmenting their existing consumer and business segments.

From serving consumers, hotels, gyms and Airbnbs, Oxwash uses its ozone generation technology and delivery to provide coronavirus disinfection laundry methods to the healthcare sector, where the demand for high-grade washing is extensive, according to the startup.

The NHS, GP practises, care homes, vulnerable people at home and hotels housing key workers have all benefited from the startup’s methods which combine ozone disinfection with thermal and chemical processes that wash to pharmaceutical-grade cleanliness, in order to ensure the disinfection of bacterial, fungal, and viral agents. 

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