Singapore sustainable homecare brand Bambooloo is about to enter its next phase of growth – global expansion, starting in the US.
The three-year-old Singapore company has been accepted into Amazon US’s LaunchPad Program which encourages and promotes innovative startups aiding exposure on the platform – and hopefully sales.
Meanwhile, in Asia Pacific, Bambooloo is looking to expand further in Australia, Thailand and Hong Kong, following on from its launch in Singapore, Malaysia and New Zealand.
Bambooloo products are 100-per-cent biodegradable and its packaging 100-per-cent plastic-free.
The brand launched with a bamboo-based three-ply toilet roll and has now expanded to include a kitchen roll, facial tissues, and most recently WaterBaby wipes. The brand also released one of the few 100-per-cent natural fabric masks in the world to be rated BFE95.
Investment funding from Razor Inc’s $50 million USD Z Ventures Razer Green Fund has helped boost the brand’s profile and help it achieve the products’ approximately 200-per-cent year-on-year revenue growth.
So, too, did the results of the company’s analysis of the resources used to produce traditional wood pulp-based tissues.
David Ward, founder & CEO of Bambooloo’s parent The Nurturing Co, says producing just one roll of wood-pulp toilet paper requires 140 litres of water and 440 grams of carbon. That’s the same volume of water an average Singaporean uses in a day, including for bathing, cooking or drinking. But producing one roll of Bambooloo uses 93-per-cent less water and 70-per-cent less carbon.
“If a family of four shifts to Bambooloo toilet paper, they can save over 30,000 litres of water every year, close to 74,000 grams of carbon and more than 65 sqm of plastic,” said Ward.
Bambooloo is out to disrupt the industry, look at the issues from another perspective, and share that with consumers around the world so that they can make conscious, informed decisions, said Ward.
“More than 90 per cent of the global hygiene paper market is still held by giant multinationals who continue to produce products that don’t solve the issue of the depletion of resources.”
The global hygiene paper market is valued at more than US$275 billion and by using carbon positive, fast-growing bamboo, the company wants to help as many people as possible make the switch to lower impacting, sustainable alternatives to help curb the amount of the world’s resources being used just to go to the toilet.
Between 2020 and 2024, Bambooloo estimates its customers will help to save more than 3 billion litres of water, 5 billion grams of carbon and 7 million sqm of plastic.
“Bambooloo is in business to help save our planet,” said Ward. “We are passionate about reducing and removing single-use plastics and encourage behavioural change by helping consumers around the world transition towards more sustainable and less impacting solutions.”
The Nurturing Co is holding another funding round in September to further boost the company’s expansion.
