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Here ’s the harsh truth behind personal care products : You ’re mostly buy weewee and charge plate . The independent ingredient in a bottleful of shampoo or shower gel is water , which is then mixed with a bunch of active element . And because it ’s a “ pre - mixed ” product , companies spend a lot of money on plastic bottles to enthrall those product to your bathroom .
French startup900.carewants to assay something newfangled . Instead of buying a new bottle of shower gel every sentence you need some shower gel , the startup focuses on the alive ingredient .
On your first edict , you receive an empty , reusable plastic bottle with a ticker . You put a bantam stick of compacted gunpowder in the feeding bottle , add some water and look a few hours . It ’s then quick to use . The next fourth dimension you need more shower gel or shampoo , you only need a raw stick ( and some pat piss ) .
“ You keep all the benefit of using shower gel , for example . Our shower bath gel lathers , it has the same texture , it smell serious , etc . But you did n’t buy any plastic and you did n’t carry any water system , ” co - founder and CEO Aymeric Grange told me .
And 900.care raised a € 21 million funding around a couple of month ago ( $ 23 million at today ’s exchange charge per unit ) , as its products have been working middling well in its home country . Lombard Odier Investment Managers is direct the funding round with existing investors White Star Capital , Swen Blue Ocean and Founders Future also participating .
The startup followed the direct - to - consumer playbook , as customers can only purchase products on its website . As you always need new personal care products , the party also decided to sell its product as subscription solely .
In 2023 alone , 900.care generated € 10 million in tax income ( $ 10.8 million ) . The startup has 90,000 customer with 235,000 active subscriptions — each node can have multiple subscriptions .
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In addition to shampoo and shower gel , 900.care also sell foaming manus soap , dish soap , laundry and dish washer tablets , as well as a few other products . The society judge that it foreclose the equivalent of 3.5 million credit card bottle of waste material .
The small prints
The company ’s intersection also represent a good business opportunity . Every few workweek , customers receive an gasbag with new sticks for their hygiene and nursing home intersection . Because those compacted pulverization sticks are quite small , they fit in a normal envelope and can be sent as normal mail , which saves 900.care money on shipping fees .
likewise , factories and yield credit line are quite modest , as they do n’t need huge basins to mix body of water with active constituent . They only take to mix up dissimilar powders and compact the admixture to turn it into midget sticks .
“ For the compacting and industrial enterprise stage , the heavy challenge was that there was no one who knew how to do that . ab initio , we started working with people who were involved in cosmetic , ” Grange said . “ But we soon pull in that this was n’t proceed to work . They could n’t keep up with the yard , and the factories were n’t designed for it . So during the second poop of 2023 , we open a factory in Saint - Etienne , devote to compacted powder . ”
This new factory will work exclusively for 900.care but is still operated by a partner . But the fact that everything has been specifically designed for 900.care has greatly improved the company ’s margins .
The inauguration intend it can extend to € 100 million in revenue within three year , as it is about to expand to other European land beyond France , Belgium and Switzerland . But the company still expect to turn a net profit this twelvemonth .
