Two Perth dads have received enormous support for their innovative baby bottle device through their crowdfunding campaign, raising more than 50 per cent of their $81,000 goal in just five days and 100 per cent in just ten days.
The young fathers, Ricky Hee and Alex Djojoutomo created Bottle Bath, an electric 3-in-1 bottle washer, steriliser and dryer to make parenting life easier.
The reason for founding the business was to give back time to parents.
Co-founder Ricky, explained how they wanted to “create a timesaving and quality product that allows parents to spend more time with their little ones and not in the kitchen, manually cleaning and sterilising baby bottle[s].”
When asked why they sought crowdfunding, Ricky commented on the community of innovators that are like-minded to themselves.
“It’s a community of innovators who are willing to get behind an idea from the start. We feel that the platform is perfect for us.”
Co-founder Alex, said that crowdfunding through their Kickstarter campaign enabled their supporters to follow their journey in bringing the product to market.
This has been through regular updates and conducting a focus group to receive early feedback on their product.
Of the 50 plus parents surveyed, “there was an overwhelming response and interest to how much this product would help their lives,” said Ricky.
The funds from the Kickstarter campaign will go towards further refining their prototype and showcasing their product in baby and pregnancy exhibitions in both Australia and Singapore.
Previous showcasing of their prototype has already enabled them to secure funding from individual investors.
The pair are seeking the support of both crowdfunding and investors to develop their product.
Such rapid growth of funds secured through crowdfunding hints at the success of the product amongst parents.
“We feel the product will be successful because we know the pain points of parents, and how much they would value spending time with their newborn babies, instead of cleaning bottles,” said Alex.
“We see our product sitting in people’s houses all over the world who are willing to embrace new technology and make their parenting life easier…we believe we can reach out to parents globally,” he added.
Read more articles about crowdfunding here.
