Meet the Founders - Oxwash
EIS eligible deal, creating a sustainable, net-zero laundry system.
For our fourth meet the founder series, we caught up with Kyle Grant (CEO) and Tom de Wilton (COO and CSO), the co-founders of Conduit Connect company Oxwash. In 2019, Oxwash closed a £1.75m seed round co-led by Founders Factory and TrueSight Ventures, with RB Ventures, Biz Stone (twitter.com), Paul Forster (indeed.com), and a number of Conduit Connect angel investors on board. Now they are back on the platform raising a £1m to launch their award-winning, sustainable laundry service nationwide and enter into new markets like clothing rental and re-commerce. For more information on the fundraise or for an introduction to the founders, please email info@theconduitconnect.com.
Kyle Grant (L) and Tom de Wilton (R)
Describe your startup in two sentences
Oxwash is the future of laundry. Our goal is to replace all toxic, inefficient and polluting washing with a net-zero Oxwash service and platform.
What gave you the inspiration?
KG: I was studying for a PhD at the University of Oxford when I got sick and tired of trying to use broken, dirty and expensive college laundry rooms. My friends had the same issue and so I started Oxwash to solve this problem. We grew incredibly quickly and out of the student market into SME’s including café’s restaurants and bars. It was when I visited my first commercial laundry and saw how toxic the process was that I got the bug for completely re-engineering the process from the ground up. Using inspiration from my time at NASA we built a new process coupled to our zero-emission fleet of cargo bikes that has now expanded across the UK!
How did you meet?
KG: Tom (our COO) and I met at a pitching event at the Oxford Foundry where I was pitching Oxwash for an award. We spoke over a month or two by email until Tom joined as an intern to research the use of ozone in dishwashing. Shortly after that I realised he was a phenomenal operator and the rest is history!
What has been your greatest success to date? And your greatest challenge?
Our greatest success to date would definitely be the work we’ve done during Covid-19 to support the frontline health and care workers of the UK. We’re also still doing the laundry and PPE for the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine trials and rollout. Our biggest challenge has been our pivot to our healthcare and B2C focus with Covid-19. Our SME revenue has been supressed enormously by the rolling lockdowns and we’ve had to work incredibly hard to penetrate new segments of the market.
How has Covid-19 affected your business?
As an operational business C-19 has had a serious impact on the health of our team, the viability of our clients and the mental health of everyone. Our B2B segment saw an 85% drop in revenue when we entered the first lockdown and has slowly been recovering since but is still significantly supressed due to most of our clients being mandated to remain shut. However, we have seen robust 10-15% MoM growth since the first lock down in our B2C segment and a huge 225% growth in our Healthcare and Scientific client base driven by our investment into our disinfection processes. It was this R&D that allowed us to tender for and win the laundry contract for the AstraZeneca-Oxford Vaccine development which we are very proud of.
What kind of impact is your business having and how do you measure it?
We measure our impact on three main fronts: Tonnes of CO2, Water and Clothes saved from landfill and from polluting our environment. Our robust sustainability modelling has been developed alongside Oxford University consultants and our partners Reckitt Benckieser but is an ongoing process to fully drive transparency in our supply chain as well as our own processes. Our software platform that runs our operation is being developed to be able to tell down to the g of CO2 and ml of water how much we’re saving per customers items, a huge step forwards for accountability in the washing industry.
When you were little what did you want to be when you grew up?
KG: Astronaut
TdW: Accountant
If you weren’t doing this, what would be your plan B?
KG: Building and designing life support systems for deep space travel. Designing a system that can sustain life with no inputs to the system is the holy grail of resource utilisation!
What would you save in a fire?
KG: My girlfriend, carrying my collection of houseplants at the same time.
Who is your role model/ greatest influence? And why?
KG: Wilbur Wright. He lost his front teeth trying to impress a girlfriend playing hockey, fell in love with the technology of his time from designing a printing press to then fixing bikes and finally inventing powered flight. Not a bad CV if you ask me.
What is your happy track?
KG: Thomas Newman - Starlit
What’s your motto?
Et Gradatim Ferociter – Step by Step…Ferociously
What are you most looking forward to in 2021?
KG: Seeing my family on the beach where I grew up and seeing Oxwash launch nationally!