Australia’s Zero Waste Startup Zero Co Raises AU$2 Mn Seed Funding Led by Skip Capital

Sustainable packaging focused personal care and home-cleaning products brand Zero Co said on Tuesday it has raised AUD 2 million in seed funding round led by Skip Capital, the investment fund of Kim Jackson and Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar.

A clutch of other investors, including former St George Bank CEO Rob Chapman, Koala founders Dany Milham and Mitch Taylor and Alex Cornish of Cornish Family Investments also participated in the round.

Zero Co said it will use the fresh funds to launch new products, hire across senior roles, invest in world-first pouch cleaning and sanitization technology, conduct further large scale ocean clean ups and explore international markets.

Founded by Kim Jackson, Zero Co makes cleaning and laundry products packaged in recyclable containers, which are made from plastic waste pulled from ocean and landfills. The company helps reduce single use plastic by delivering “forever’ bottles to its customers. When customers use up the product, they send back the containers to the company, which are then cleaned and re-filled to be sold again.

“If we can inspire 20,000 Australian households to purge their homes of single-use plastic and switch to Zero Co we can stop 1 million single-use plastic bottles from ending up in our oceans and landfill in the next 12 months,” said co-founder Smith.

The company picked its first batch of plastic waste to be recycled into dispensers from Jakarta, Indonesia in December 2019. “Whilst in Jakarta, we managed to pull over 6,000kg of plastic from the Java Sea. Customers can see which part of the ocean they helped us clean up with each Zero Co dispenser coming with a tracking code,” said Smith.

Not just packaging, the company claims all its products are also environment friendly. Ingredients used are grey water safe, plant-based, vegan and cruelty free and don’t contain palm oil (barring dishwasher tablets).

Commenting on the deal, Kim Jackson, founder of Skip Capital, said “We’re excited to be backing Zero Co who have already made a huge impact on single-use plastics and have developed a high quality product range that is waste free. Mike and his dedicated team are on a mission to win the War on Waste with Zero Co and we’re thrilled that customers will soon be able to get their hands on these products.”

“Waste is a big, global problem, and we are excited to invest in companies like Zero Co that are leading the way in eliminating waste and re-defining what customers should expect from a product,” said.