Sean Lam had constructed an intensive profession within the fintech business.
Having labored throughout cybersecurity and threat administration at main corporations like PwC and Visa, he even went on to begin his personal fintech startup, Jewel Paymentech—a monetary threat expertise firm that was later acquired by Advance Intelligence Group, the corporate behind buy-now-pay-later platform Atome.
However after exiting his enterprise, Sean discovered himself at a crossroads. Though he had cracked some robust challenges in digital funds all through his profession, he felt a rising have to create one thing with deeper, long-term affect.
That’s when he got here throughout a sobering statistic: Singapore is the world’s largest producer of single-use plastic waste per capita, with a recycling price below 6%. Whereas numerous initiatives to advertise recycling have been underway, few had been significantly addressing reuse—the step that ought to come earlier than recycling.
This realisation compelled him to take motion, and with that, Ecoworks was born. At this time, the corporate operates a rising community of automated refill stations for family merchandise throughout Singapore.
The way it works
Ecoworks rolled out its very first refill station in late January 2024 as a proof of idea, and has since expanded to 14 areas throughout the city-state.
As of writing, its stations solely dispense laundry detergent and dishwashing liquid, which the corporate claims are biodegradable, plant-based, and produced utilizing renewable power.
Past being mild on the setting, they’re mild on the pockets too, with one litre priced at simply S$3.
The refill course of at Ecowork’s automated stations is designed to be easy: Simply deliver alongside a clear, dry bottle with a minimum of a litre’s capability, faucet to pay, choose your refill, and dispense.
All stations are absolutely unattended, cashless, and cloud-connected. “Behind the scenes, we observe stock in actual time [and] handle transactions remotely,” Sean added.
Quickly, the startup may even enable customers to pre-purchase refills on accomplice marketplaces and redeem them on web site. This will likely be both through QR code, or via Ecowork’s app, which remains to be presently below improvement.
“We name this ‘refill commerce’—a brand new last-mile format that cuts out each packaging and shelf house.”
Getting the idea off the bottom
However refill stations have existed inside specialty shops for years, so what precisely units Ecoworks aside and the way has it managed to scale?
Sean identified that conventional refill stations by no means actually took off as they merely weren’t constructed for comfort. “They relied on folks bringing their very own bottles, touring out of their means, and coping with a guide, usually messy course of,” he defined.
What’s been lacking is a system that works outdoors of shops—nearer to the place folks really stay. One thing sensible, unattended, and accessible 24/7. That’s what we got down to construct with Ecoworks.
Sean Lam, founding father of Ecoworks
Because of this the corporate deliberately arrange its sensible refill stations in on a regular basis areas, from HDB void decks to group centres and even college campuses.
Nevertheless, getting the idea off the bottom wasn’t straightforward. The most important hurdle the startup confronted securing the house to function its stations. In accordance with Sean, since such stations had by no means existed in Singapore earlier than, there was no established course of for acquiring approvals.
“In contrast to typical merchandising machines that dispense extra plastic merchandise, Ecoworks operates extra like a reverse merchandising system—every refill helps take away bottles from the waste stream,” he stated. “It took appreciable effort to assist stakeholders perceive that these stations operate as infrastructure, not shops.”
As soon as the startup overcame that hurdle, it raised a small pre-seed spherical within the low six-figures from angel buyers. This funding enabled the corporate to develop its tech stack, broaden its pilot community and begin gathering knowledge to show each its affect and viability.
One other important problem the startup confronted was onboarding different manufacturers. Many had deeply entrenched provide chains constructed round plastic packaging, so shifting to refill required rethinking product distribution—which comes off as an enormous ask. “We needed to present that this wasn’t simply an eco-initiative, however a viable new [revenue] channel,” stated Sean.
One of many manufacturers the startup has collaborated with is bio-home, which produces eco-friendly cleansing merchandise. Collectively, they’ve deployed branded refill stations on the Nationwide College of Singapore in addition to Metropolis Sq. Mall.
Constructing the ship because it sails
To this point, Ecoworks’ efforts to cut back single-use plastic waste look like paying off. It’s on observe to get rid of 100,000 single-use bottles by the top of 2025, and so far, has already averted 558 kilograms of single-use plastic.
However the firm nonetheless considers itself in its early levels. Like many startups, the corporate is constructing the ship because it sails, and at its present part, it’s specializing in studying and amassing knowledge from every of its sensible refill stations to plan a extra strategic and focused rollout within the subsequent part of progress.
Within the brief time period, Sean is targeted on increasing the enterprise’s presence, and will likely be piloting a franchise mannequin to scale cost-effectively. He’s additionally trying to introduce extra product classes.
Wanting forward, the long-term imaginative and prescient is to ascertain Ecoworks as a “full-fledged refill commerce platform” throughout Asia. This contains getting into new markets corresponding to Japan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia.
“We’re nonetheless early in our journey, however the traction we’re seeing reinforces the necessity—and demand—for smarter, packaging-free options,” stated Sean.
Consciousness round sustainability is rising, and whereas the tradition of reuse remains to be in its early days, he believes it holds the best potential for significant change.
- Discover out extra about Ecoworks right here.
- Learn different articles we’ve written on Singaporean startups right here.
Featured Picture Credit score: Ecoworks/ Edward Chia through Instagram
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