Oxwash offers medical-grade laundry technology typically used in spaceships
Oxwash, the world’s first future-proof and clinically clean washing service, has opened a new ‘lagoon’ in Cambridge.
The eco-friendly, space-age laundry and dry-cleaning service opened its first branch in Oxford in 2018.
Founded by former NASA engineer Kyle Grant, Oxwash combines ozone disinfection with thermal and biodegradable chemical processes to achieve greater than pharmaceutical-grade disinfection to eradicate bacterial, fungal and viral agents in customers’ items.
A £1.8m investment earlier funding included TrueSight Ventures; Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, and Paul Forster, founder of Indeed.com. Openings are planned for Bristol and Bath as well as Cambridge. Partnerships with Deliveroo , the Marriott Hotel chain and Oxford University have seen growth soar. Mr Grant was recently selected for Forbes Europe’s 30 under 30.
The company’s second facility, based at Ronald Rolph Court , means Cambridge now has access to medical-grade laundry technology typically used in spaceship and hospital sterilisation.
Customers can hire Oxwash’s concierge service, which uses electric cargo bikes adapted with portable ozone generators to collect items to be cleaned at the Cambridge lagoon. Items are delivered back to owners in a no-contact drop off using dissolvable laundry bags. Customers also have the option of a self-drop off and collection service.
Using its innovative technology, Oxwash can save up to 25 litres of water per wash and prevent 100 million plastic microfibres from going into the world’s oceans . Current customers of Oxwash include the NHS and Oxford Vaccine Trial, with Oxwash also offering a coronavirus disinfection service.
CEO Mr Grant said: “The laundry industry is broken. Wild amounts of fresh water, energy and chemicals are used and it is simply not sustainable.
“We’re developing processes to have zero net impact for the whole laundry process – from collection to washing and back to delivery again. Cambridge is incredibly advanced when it comes to cycling culture and infrastructure, and we are thrilled to be launching our second lagoon following the success of our Oxford HQ.
“We hope to be an active, positive part of the community and cannot wait to start washing Cambridge’s laundry sustainably.”
Prices start at £1.50 for a single pillow case and goes up to £47.95 for a suede jacket. Services include scientific and academic clothing (eg lab coats) and will soon also include wedding dress cleaning.
