Cleanery
Cleanery creates high-performance, powder-based cleaning and personal care products that eliminate single-use plastic and unnecessary packaging, and cut carbon emissions by 99%, making sustainable choices easy and accessible for everyday consumers.
Fund: Te Pae ki te Rangi
Transaction Summary
Fund: Te Pae ki te Rangi
Date Invested: May 2024 (Seed) | November 2024 (Option)
Instrument: Equity Investment
IRIS+ Category: Pollution | Pollution Prevention - FMCG
Why We Invested
Cleaning products are mostly water. Shipped in plastic bottles, across oceans, into homes where consumers already have taps. Cleanery spotted that absurdity and built a business around it.
Their powder-based products are mixed with water at home, cutting packaging waste by 99% and eliminating the emissions that come with shipping liquid weight at scale. Plant and mineral-based. Outperforming traditional cleaners. No green premium.
That last point sharpened our conviction. Sustainable choices have historically cost more, which means they've historically been purchased by fewer people. Impact with a price barrier has a ceiling. Cleanery doesn't.
Measuring What Matters
Problem:
Single-use packaging causes damage twice: in production, and in disposal.
What:
Emissions avoided from production and shipping of bottled liquid products through powdered products use. Encouraging wider consumer behaviour change to reuse existing bottles at home with powdered products, and a market shift to powdered solutions.
Who:
Everyday consumers of cleaning and personal care products, for whom efficacy, affordability, and environmental credentials all influence the decision to buy.
How Much:
Scale: customers who've bought Cleanery products.
Depth: effect on category norms, with Cleanery's success catalysing further adoption of powder and refill formats across the sector.
Duration: long-term shift in consumer behaviour for Cleanery customers, and a longer trend toward sustainability among category competitors.
Contribution:
Sustainable products have been seen as less effective and more expensive, slowing market adoption. Cleanery closes that gap: it outperforms incumbent products without charging a premium for doing so, accelerating the case for concentrated and powdered alternatives across the sector.
Impact Risk:
Cleanery's impact depends on consumers willing to change their routines. The perception that sustainable products underperform is a real barrier to uptake, even where the products have already disproved it.
Impact Measures:
Users who have measured and taken action to reduce their carbon footprint.
