Hey Everyone! Welcome to our monthly blog as we take you on a journey through a startup. It's not for the faint-hearted and includes lots of failures and some successes too. From imposter syndrome to getting international press attention. From funding woes to securing a £1m fundraising partnership with a global engineering company. And tech product failure to putting our first pilot in a refugee camp. You'll read it all here – month after month.

I guess you're wondering who I am? My name’s Nav which means New in Punjabi. I'm the Founder of The Washing Machine Project CIC. We're a UK based social enterprise founded in 2018 which is on a mission to alleviate the burden of people who hand wash clothes. We make manual washing machines that save time, water and effort for 70% of the world's population that get on their hands and knees every day, in lakes, rivers, streams, on the floor, using buckets and cold water, interacting with detergent and Dettol, causing back pain, joint and skin irritation. This burden is disproportionately placed on women who spend up to 20 hours a week just on this one activity. This all started on the back of some inspiration I got from my next-door neighbour Divya. Her daily struggles and my promise to her is what put The Washing Machine Project cycle in motion. So much so, we even named our product after her, Divya One. You'll hear more about that next month.

We're addressing long-standing issues in development, research and logistics to tackle intractable global poverty and aim to improve prospects of those overlooked by prosperity and to whom modern lifestyle comforts are inaccessible. Our goal is to install 30,000 washing machines by 2023, saving 75% of the time and 50% water for the end-user. We've developed and evidenced standalone, off the grid, manual washing solutions that alleviate handwashing clothes' hardship and have gained end-user insights research in four continents with 600 families in 10 countries.

Bath University and SETsquared Bath have been unbelievably supportive in our mission. I have an Engineering background with a passion for humanitarianism and had a limited understanding of entrepreneurship and business. The folks at Bath gave me the confidence, networks and resources to pursue this mission to where it is today. I'll never forget it. Recently we have been working with SETsquared Bath in the IKEEP program, where we took on three undergraduate interns for 2 weeks to help us with some of our marketing. It was an excellent opportunity to work collaboratively with brilliant minds that are passionate about a good cause. We really enjoyed the experience. There is some things I can talk about, and there is some things I can't. Many things are yet to be launched, and as soon I'm allowed to, I will let you know.

Thanks for the continued love and support. If you would like to continue the conversation, please reach out to me via LinkedIn and via our TWMP social media pages.

Have a happy and healthy day ahead.

#1 The Washing Machine Project