Sustainable homeware business receives investment boost from Holly Branson

Holly Branson, along with the Conduit EIS Fund has backed a ‘pioneering’ new British homeware business which transforms industrial waste products otherwise destined for landfill into recyclable homeware.

Holly heard about ReBorn through Virgin’s not-for-profit business incubator, Virgin StartUp, which has a dedicated accelerator programme, called Collective Impact, for purpose-driven businesses.

ReBorn, a London based startup founded by former Johnson & Johson executive, Brian Walmsley, has used the oversubscribed seed round to scale his business and help tackle the UK’s ‘fast homeware’ habits.

Most plastic homeware products, such as draining racks, coat hangers and washing-up bowls, are made from virgin plastics shipped to the UK from the Far East, involving extensive use of fossil fuels in both manufacture and transport, all at great cost to the planet.

These products are also often “co-moulded” meaning they’re made of mixed materials that can’t be recycled, so most of this plastic will end up in landfill and will never decompose. ReBorn significantly reduces the need for virgin materials and breathes life into discarded materials.

Working in partnership with Biffa, the UK’s leading sustainable waste management company, these waste materials, which mostly consist of wasted food packaging collected from Britain’s factories, are ‘reborn’ and transformed into stylish and practical homewares in ReBorn’s Wiltshire factory.

Ahead of the funding round, founder, Brian, took part in the aforementioned Collective Impact programme, which is specifically for ‘purpose-driven’ business founders who are looking to raise investment for the first time and want to understand more about the funding landscape, what investors are looking for and how to scale a sustainable business.

Brian commented: “Almost 70 million homeware items are thrown away in the UK every year, many of which will end up in landfill, and we know that this is a major issue that retailers have been keen to address.

“Through ReBorn, we wanted to tackle this problem and have created a brand that turns industrial waste into eye-catching homeware that delivers a more sustainable and circular approach.

Holly Branson added: “As soon as I heard about ReBorn I knew I wanted to support the business and its mission to tackle the fast-fashion equivalent in homeware. It’s so important that we think twice about the products in our homes, how they are made, where they have travelled from and where they go when we’ve finished using them.”

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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