Australian eco startup Zero Co has announced a $4.3 million crowdfunding campaign, asking Australians to support its next growth phase as they seek to tackle the global plastic problem.
Over the past 10 months, Zero Co has signed up more than 40,000 Australian households and has recently reached monthly sales of $1 million for its range of single-use plastic free, refillable personal-care and home-cleaning products.
Zero co-founder Mike Smith launched the business in November 2020 after running Australia’s most funded 2019 Kickstarter, amassing more than $742,000 in pre-orders from almost 7,000 Australians.
The latest crowd-sourced funding round will be hosted on the Birchal platform, with Zero Co announcing an expression of interest phase earlier this week. It will remain open until Oct. 18. If the company succeeds in raising the full amount of capital, it will claim the largest crowdfund in Australian history.
“We’re building a people-powered solution to the global plastic problem and we want to align the interests of our customers with those of our business and our planet. There’s no better way to do that than for our customers and the general public to become our shareholders” said Smith.
New shareholders will join the company’s list of current investors including Koala founders Dany Milham and Mitch Taylor, former St George Bank CEO Rob Chapman and Right Click Capital founder Ari Klinger.
“I was impressed with Zero Co’s strategic approach to solving the problem, built around providing a convenient, cost-effective alternative to single-use plastic that is accessible to all Australians. That’s why I decided to back Mike and the team,” Klinger said.
“I met Mike one morning in Sydney and listened to his story – it was so compelling that three months later I and a couple of colleagues invested $1 million to get him started,” Chapman added. “The products are first class and the broader community wants to be part of the solution to this global problem. Mike is a great founder and inspirational leader of a now 20-something-strong team.”
Zero Co is offering shares beginning at $250. They are hoping to use this capital raising to enter the global market in 2022 and expand their zero-waste product range.
“We want to become the world’s most loved zero waste brand,” Smith noted. “We’ve got global ambitions and we want to invite our existing customers and community to be part of that global vision by becoming shareholders”.
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