We have invested $6m into Zero Co!

We’re honoured to have joined Mike and the Zero Co community on their mission to rid the world of single-use plastics as they prove that quality, sustainability and ambition go hand-in-hand. Zero Co’s mission has inspired action by tens of thousands of Aussies so far, who have snapped up Zero Co’s incredible range of planet-friendly personal care and home cleaning products. Like many of their customers, we came for the mission, but stayed for the products.

We’re joining the Zero Co community at a pivotal moment in their journey. This week, the team broke the Australian crowdfunding record raising $5m in just 7 hours enabling 3082 Aussie investors to own a part of this extraordinary business.

Zero Co are inviting you to join them on their journey by owning a part of the company. You can find out more, and join the public access fundraise this week.

What is Zero Co?

At its core, Zero Co makes incredible personal care and home cleaning products without contributing to the massive single use plastic crisis affecting the globe. They launched this year with a wide range of products to stock your bathroom, laundry and kitchen cabinets that get delivered direct to consumers doors, minus all the single-use plastic. Their Forever Bottles™ (that customers keep and refill with their reusable refill pouches) are made using a mix of ocean, beach and landfill plastic.

A world-class mission:

After just 10 months of operation, customers turbocharged Zero Co to more than $1m in monthly sales. In large part, this was driven by the powerful and simple mission motivating Mike and his team: untrashing the planet by stopping the production of single use plastic, and cleaning up the hundreds of millions of tonnes of plastic in our oceans. Their reusable refill pouches are made from plastic waste diverted from landfill and are designed to be refilled and reused over and over and over again. Every refill equals one less new-plastic-bottle being made, used once and thrown away. Their dispensers are made from ocean, beach and landfill plastic waste and so far they’ve removed over 6,000kg of plastic rubbish from the ocean with plans to scale this with customers.

Home cleaning and personal care has seen very little innovation in decades, and the category is dominated by a small number of massive consumer goods companies. We believe Zero Co's unique brand, community and distribution model, along with their infectious environmental mission, is the key in disrupting the industry.

An industry ready for change

The Australian home cleaning and personal care market sees $9.5b in annual revenue. Globally, the market is just shy of a $300b industry in home cleaning products alone. ‘Green’ products are growing twice as quickly as the industry growth rate. The top 10 products in the category account for around half of the market and Zero Co is active in 6 of the 10, with plans to incorporate the rest in the next 12-18 months.

Most low or zero waste home and personal cleaning products rely on dissolving a tablet in water. This method leads to a much lower viscosity liquid. Online reviews of these brands are often critical of quality, especially for personal cleaning products where viscosity feels great. Zero Co, on the other hand, take a novel approach of making products in the format people want them in and avoiding the use of single use plastics altogether by shipping customers products in refillable pouches. This approach means that Zero Co doesn’t trade useability or experience for sustainability. And their customers love them for it, with thousands of 5* reviews, and an outstanding average rating of 4.8/5 rating on more than 2500 reviews.

How Zero Co Works:

1. Order your first set of Zero Co products direct from their website. Many customers prefer to opt for their all-in starter box.

2. Your Zero Co order is then delivered to you with a set of empty dispensers (‘Forever Bottles™️) and colour-matched refill pouches with a reply-paid postage envelope.

3. Use the pouches to refill your forever bottles, and once empty, place them in the return envelope.

4. Once you’ve collected 15 or so empty pouches, ship the envelope back to Zero Co where it’s cleaned, refilled and sent back out to customers.

Their Forever Bottles™️’) are made from ocean, beach and landfill bound waste and the refill pouches are made from recycled materials diverted from landfill.

“Zero Co’s current product range consists of 10 products, with plans to expand the range. Products I’m already using each week include handwash, bodywash, laundry liquid, multi-purpose spray, dishwashing liquid, dishwashing tablets, stain remover, shower cleaner, toilet cleaner and air freshener. In fact, our team are all users of the products, and to say we’re obsessed is an understatement."

"We’ve seen how, like our team and our families, Zero Co’s customers are overwhelmingly repeating their purchases, refilling their pouches and bottles time and again.“

Meet the team:

This team is custom-built for this mission. With experts across the board in product development, community building, sustainability and design, the team are well positioned to build Zero Co into the household name it plans to be.

Mike Smith – Founder

Zero Co was founded in early 2019 by Mike Smith, who was inspired to tackle the global plastic crisis after an 18-month backpacking trip around the globe. Mike is laser focused on building a brand that his customers feel a connection with. Mike has experience launching community-driven businesses, having built and sold two companies before Zero Co: one that brought together wine enthusiasts, and the other hardcore surfers. Mike has a strong ‘get-shit-done’ attitude, a knack for PR, skills in culture building, and a genuine passion and commitment to Zero Co’s mission. Mike has diligently focused on hiring top talent to build a great team around him and fulfill Zero Co’s audacious journey.

Sandy Morrow – COO

Sandy Morrow is the ex-Global Head of Operations at Koala. With 10 years of experience in high growth start-ups, Sandy is the perfect person to manage Zero Co’s complex supply chain. Sandy is passionate, articulate, thoughtful about lessons learnt from her previous experience, and above all – works great with Mike.

Dr Kate Forbes – Master Experimenter (Product Innovation)

Dr Kate Forbes joins following 20 years at luxury beauty brand, Aesop, where she was the Global Head of Product Innovation, and lead Aesop’s efforts to become a certified B-Corp. With big plans to expand their product range, Kate will be crucial in ensuring Zero Co's mission is fulfilled while maintaining a high level of quality, at an affordable price point for customers.

Building for the community

“Zero Co is my first investment since landing back in Australia from Israel, and it’s wonderful to be joining such a mission-driven company. It has been a privilege to get to know Mike and his team, and watch in awe as they ready themselves for this week’s all-important crowd source funding campaign. The campaign is yet another example of how unique Mike and the teams’ first principles thinking and customer-orientation is, and I’m excited by the prospect of being part of such a diverse, committed and enthusiastic cap table.

If you’d like to join the campaign, please do so here.

Or stock up on your new favourite personal care and home cleaning products at zeroco.com.au

Oh, and… they’re hiring)”

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