In Focus with The Washing Machine Project
In Focus with The Washing Machine Project
At Spaceworks, we love celebrating the incredible businesses and organisations that call our community home. This month, we’re thrilled to highlight The Washing Machine Project, a Bristol-based social enterprise making a global impact with a simple but powerful idea.
Meet the Founder
“Hi. My name is Nav. It means new in Punjabi. And I am the founder of The Washing Machine Project.”
How do you explain to people what you do?
“The Washing Machine Project is addressing a huge global problem. 60% of the world hand wash clothes, and the burden of hand washing clothes is disproportionately placed on women and girls. We think that’s really unfair at The Washing Machine Project because it denies them opportunities to work, study and rest. So we design, manufacture and distribute low-cost manual washing machines that save time, water and effort for people who hand wash clothes around the world.”
How did you get started?
“So in 2018, I got started, as an engineer. I was fed up of making vacuums for rich people. So I decided to quit my job. I moved to India to make cookstoves. And there I met my next door neighbour. And my friendship with her completely changed my life. She’d spend up to 20 hours a week hand washing clothes. And it was then that I promised her an alternative to hand washing clothes and, you know, fast forward seven years now—we have impacted over 34,000 people.”
What Do You Want to Shout About?
“So what’s really exciting is that we’ve built the world’s first flatpack manual washing machine. We’ve done that here in Bristol at Spaceworks. So think IKEA—but for manual washing machines. The design team are incredible. They use the space all the time. And we will continue to innovate around laundry care and services, both in in-home settings and in community settings around the world. So from refugee camps to hospitals to schools, orphanages and low-income areas around the world.”
The innovation happening within The Washing Machine Project’s team is as inspiring as its mission. With a vision to transform laundry care globally, their flatpack manual washing machine is revolutionizing access to hygienic laundry solutions—right from the heart of Bristol.
Why Spaceworks?
“So we’ve been at Spaceworks for probably the last year and a half now. We chose it at the time because we were growing. And as a small business—not-for-profit—it was a really good space that had incredible businesses working on site. And it was affordable for us. When we moved in, we were so welcomed by everyone here. We love the daily sandwich run. Not only that, when we were doing some of our activities, we did a hackathon and invited other businesses to take part in our hackathon, and that was incredible. So, yeah, we really feel at home here. And it’s really an amazing space.”
We’re proud to support changemakers like The Washing Machine Project and can’t wait to see how their flatpack washing machines—and their mission—continue to innovate and scale up.
👉 Interested in joining a community that grows with you? Learn more here.
Nav at a Festival in Kuilipalayam, India
The Divya – the world’s first flat-packable washing machine
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