This S’pore startup makes air-purifying paint, now it’s in 8 markets

Gush is a Singapore-based startup creating paint that cleans the air because it coats partitions

The common particular person spends 90% of their life indoors—however the air inside properties and workplaces may be as much as 5 occasions extra polluted than exterior.

That invisible downside grew to become the start line for Singapore paint producers Gush, an organization that believes the partitions themselves can assist repair it.

Based in 2017, gush produces sustainable paints that may purify the air, eradicate micro organism, regulate humidity, and even forestall mould. Better of all, they’re utterly odourless.

The enterprise’s merchandise appear to have struck a chord. Eight years on, gush has grown from a two-person founding staff into an organization with companions and tasks throughout the area and past.

We caught up with co-founder Lester Leong to learn the way the corporate scaled from a small Singapore startup right into a rising regional model.

An thought born from private frustrations

In our earlier interview with the founding staff, Lester shared that gush was born from private frustrations. He first began the model along with Ryan Lim, whom he met whereas engaged on an entrepreneurial mission on the Nationwide College of Singapore. (Ryan has since left the corporate in 2021.)

The duo have been delicate to air air pollution—Ryan had childhood bronchial asthma, and Lester suffered from sinusitis. After Singapore skilled a extreme haze episode in 2015, they sought a substitute for cumbersome, high-energy air purifiers with expensive filters.

The thought of utilizing paint to purify the air got here to us, and it appeared like a logical answer as we will them allow the largest floor space in a room—the partitions and ceiling—to work as a passive air air purifier.

They spent three years creating a paint formulation whereas nonetheless in class, consulting professors, testing prototypes, and refining it by way of suggestions from family and friends.

How gush works is easy. On the coronary heart of its paint is a proprietary catalyst that actively breaks down indoor air pollution—the invisible chemical substances launched from furnishings, cleansing brokers, and on a regular basis supplies—into innocent substances like water vapour.

In contrast to conventional paints or purifiers that merely soak up pollution, gush’s proprietary formulation neutralises air pollution at a molecular degree, repeatedly working even in the dead of night. Over time, the paint has advanced to supply “higher protection, sturdiness, anti-mould properties,” and has even been shipped to resorts within the Maldives and Bali.

Over 6K tasks delivered

From the start, gush has taken a direct-to-consumer strategy. Lester defined in a current YouTube podcast that promoting by way of retail shops would power them to surrender important margins.

As a substitute, they’ve began with e-commerce, which stays central to their technique, permitting them to go value financial savings on to prospects.

Whereas catering direct to prospects was their playbook at the beginning, gush’s enterprise at present has moved to being largely enterprise-focused. Now, they’ve expanded to serving non-public business and industrial asset enhancement works, and large-scale refurbishment tasks.

We selected this [B2B] focus as a result of we’ve since additionally developed a full suite of enterprise merchandise which have distinctive product benefits (one-coat exterior techniques as an alternative of the everyday three, heat-reduction, anti-mould and algae) that translate straight into lifecycle financial savings at scale—fewer coats, much less downtime, higher indoor environmental high quality, and decrease upkeep for asset homeowners.

Lester Leong

During the last 5 years, gush has delivered over 6,000 tasks throughout residential, public, and business areas. Notable tasks embrace Individuals’s Park Advanced—although Lester joked that “the color alternative could also be polarising”—Thomson Medical Centre, and greater than 100 multi-storey carpark repaints slated for completion over the subsequent two years.

Based on Lester, the model continues to see constant progress, practically doubling its prime line nearly yearly.

Rising past Singapore’s borders

For the reason that early 2020s, gush begun laying the groundwork for increasing past Singapore’s borders by way of “channel companions and technical trials,” leveraging funds from its pre-Sequence A rounds.

In 2019, gush raised S$3 million, adopted by near S$4.7 million in a second pre-Sequence A spherical—first led by mainboard-listed property group Metropolis Developments Restricted (CDL) after which by enterprise capital agency TNB Aura.

Competing with established gamers within the coatings area was robust, however the investments, significantly from CDL, added credibility, serving to gush acquire belief with enterprise prospects and accelerating its enlargement.

“Basically, we’ve engineered our merchandise to go above and past the calls for of tropical markets to unravel typical tropical issues of warmth and humidity whereas additionally tackling excessive labour prices and indoor air air pollution,” stated Lester.

Whereas the model’s core market remains to be squarely in Singapore, they’ve a presence in Hong Kong, in addition to the Gulf Cooperation Council, which is a regional bloc of six Center Japanese nations: Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman.

However regional enlargement has surfaced hurdles: customs and duties that have an effect on landed value, various applicator ability ranges, and the necessity to keep constant color assurance throughout climates.

“We’ve addressed this by way of tighter companion enablement, clearer methodology statements, and pilot-led entries that construct case research earlier than scaling,” stated Lester.

gush had additionally explored the US market, however tariffs and commerce obstacles made it much less viable. Lester defined that till the corporate can set up an area provide chain or manufacturing presence, they will be unable to pursue the US market additional.

Gaining market share & increasing to extra markets

At present, gush stays steadfast in its focus. “We’re staying near our core: high-performance coatings for the largest surfaces round us,” stated Lester.

Following its pre-Sequence A funding rounds, the corporate secured an undisclosed quantity in Sequence A funding throughout the first quarter of 2023. Lester shared that the funding has been deployed into product improvement, manufacturing scale-up, and enterprise go-to-market initiatives—particularly in Singapore, the place “repainting cycles are predictable and data-rich.”

“Now we have additionally invested in operational tooling, from color assurance to companion onboarding and a commerce portal to professionalise the contractor expertise,” he added.

Shifting ahead, the corporate is concentrated on growing market share in Singapore’s MCST and HDB repainting cycles, measured by repeat wins and specification inclusion. The staff can also be pursuing selective regional scale, prioritising markets with sturdy product–market match, whereas deepening its class vary.

Whereas take-up has been “encouraging” thus far, challenges stay.

Convincing companions to maneuver previous legacy specs and navigating regulatory approvals proceed to check the staff’s persistence—however gush is counting on pilot tasks, information, and whole cost-of-ownership fashions to exhibit to prospects why their options are superior for total mission outcomes.

Gush has come a good distance since its early days. After we spoke to the founders again in 2020, they described the acquainted grind of startup life—lengthy nights, tight budgets, and numerous rounds of testing simply to be taken significantly.

Their first weeks concerned having to acquire a number of check studies and certifications to even have the ability to converse with big-name prospects, who didn’t settle for a prototype and demanded heaps of documentation. They relied closely on competitions and authorities grants for funding and needed to work inside a decent finances. 

The founders additionally didn’t draw a wage for the primary half of the 12 months and have been dipping into their financial savings as an alternative. However that grit has paid off, with the corporate establishing itself as a regional participant within the coatings and high-performance paint trade.

“Our job,” Lester summed up, “is to make surfaces not simply stunning, however useful. By combining anti-mould, air-purifying interiors with heat-reflective exteriors, we will carry indoor environmental high quality, scale back cooling masses, and minimize repainting time and waste.

Over time, as cities densify, these incremental good points at each repaint cycle add up—property by property, faculty by faculty. That’s the longer term we’re constructing towards.

• Discover out extra about gush right here.
• Learn different articles we’ve written on Singaporean startups right here.

Featured Picture Credit score: Gush