So fresh and so clean? Oxwash soaks up £10 million and receives B Corp certification, but the numbers don't add up
Summary
While the site of a blue bucketed bicycle shuttling freshly washed textiles across town has become commonplace in London, Oxford, and Cambridge, the startup has raised \xa310 million in a Series A funding round aimed at expanding its services nationwide.Founded in 2018 by former NASA scientist Dr. Kyle Grant and Oxford University Master of Engineering grad Tom de Wilton, Oxwash uses water-saving ozone technology to sterilize fabrics at lower temperatures, thermal and biodegradable chemical processes to achieve higher than medical-grade disinfection, dissolvable laundry bags, and electric cargo bikes for local pickups and deliveries.Grant and de Wiltons efforts are not only setting the industry standard when comes to clearing, but theyre also being recognised for it. Grant weighs in on just how and where the fresh \xa310 million will be allocated, 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.In June of last year, Oxwash made headlines with a $3 million seed expansion round that saw notables including Holly and Sam Branson, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, Indeed.com founder Paul Forster, and Pinterest and Beyond Meat backers Future Positive throwing their weight behind the startup support. Not to be left out, Clean Ventures, Conduit-Ascension EIS Impact Fund, Pentland Group, and Leon Lewis of the River Island family fortune also jumped on the opportunity.Fast forward to November 2021, and Oxwash decided to let the outside in via an equity crowdfunding campaign that saw \xa3475,406.10 flow through the doors from 296 investors in less than 15 hours. The \xa310 million investment was led by Untitled VC, with 8 Dimension Ventures, System Capital Management, and Khimji Ramdas participating. Existing investors Access VC, Pentland Group, Ascension Ventures, Vala Capital, and Truesight Ventures all returned to the table, as did Holly and Sam Branson, Paul Forester, and Biz Stone.While the company states its raised a total of \xa315.7 million to date, theres another Crowdcube campaign dated 18 June of this year that accounts for \xa389,773.11 raised via 94 investors.