Sean Lam had constructed an in depth profession within the fintech trade.
Having labored throughout cybersecurity and danger administration at main corporations like PwC and Visa, he even went on to start out his personal fintech startup, Jewel Paymentech—a monetary danger 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 powerful challenges in digital funds all through his profession, he felt a rising must 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 charge below 6%. Whereas varied initiatives to advertise recycling have been underway, few have been critically 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 the moment, 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 vitality.
Past being mild on the surroundings, 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 simple: Simply convey alongside a clear, dry bottle with at the very least 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 monitor stock in actual time [and] handle transactions remotely,” Sean added.
Quickly, the startup may even permit customers to pre-purchase refills on companion marketplaces and redeem them on web site. This will probably be both through QR code, or via Ecowork’s app, which remains to be at the moment below improvement.
“We name this ‘refill commerce’—a brand new last-mile format that cuts out each packaging and shelf area.”
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 manner, and coping with a handbook, 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 good, unattended, and accessible 24/7. That’s what we got down to construct with Ecoworks.
Sean Lam, founding father of Ecoworks
For this reason the corporate deliberately arrange its good 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 simple. The most important hurdle the startup confronted securing the area 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 mentioned. “It took appreciable effort to assist stakeholders perceive that these stations operate as infrastructure, not stores.”
As soon as the startup overcame that hurdle, it raised a small pre-seed spherical within the low six-figures from angel traders. This funding enabled the corporate to develop its tech stack, increase its pilot community and begin gathering information to show each its affect and viability.
One other vital 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,” mentioned 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
Up to now, Ecoworks’ efforts to scale back single-use plastic waste seem like paying off. It’s on monitor to remove 100,000 single-use bottles by the tip of 2025, and thus far, has already prevented 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 section, it’s specializing in studying and gathering information from every of its good refill stations to plan a extra strategic and focused rollout within the subsequent section of progress.
Within the quick time period, Sean is concentrated on increasing the enterprise’s presence, and will probably be piloting a franchise mannequin to scale cost-effectively. He’s additionally trying to introduce extra product classes.
Trying forward, the long-term imaginative and prescient is to determine Ecoworks as a “full-fledged refill commerce platform” throughout Asia. This consists of 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 alternate options,” mentioned 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
