About TecWash
- Founders: Maurizio Tasinato, Mauro Deni, Gianfranco Tomasi, Antonella Giambellini
- Founded in: 2020
- Employees: 4
- Money raised: -
- Ultimate goal: To provide better hygiene for kids, keeping toys clean with their new washing machine.
We are all accustomed to washing our dishes, cutlery and our clothes thoroughly. But probably not as many of us think about cleaning kids’ toys with the same standards of care. And certainly not with an automated machine. After all, who’s got that many toys? Maurizio Tasinato, CEO and founder of TecWash, tells us about its importance in this installment of start-up of the day.
Where it all started
The Italian start-up from Veneto founded in 2020, figured that schools and hospitals do, in fact, have more toys than they can wash. Tasinato took the issue at heart when he designed and developed a washing machine for the deep cleaning of toys.
“Back in 2016, my two daughters were in kindergarten. They would always come home sick,” says Tasinato. “For a while, my wife and I thought it was normal. But as the situation continued, I knew something wasn’t right”.
Maurizio also ran into a study by the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal. It highlighted how bacteria and viruses survive and travel on the surfaces of toys that kids share, with no effective way of stopping the spread without proper, periodical washing.
Hybrid between a washing machine and a dishwasher
Maurizio, was working at the time working for a consulting and industrial machine-retail firm operating in thermo-technology called Sicoglobal. He looked into the matter and found out that toys in kindergartens were never cleaned. Washing toys by hand would have entailed an unreasonable amount of work hours from the school staff. In that moment he came up with the idea of a deep cleaner for toys.
Together with three partners, he founded TecWash. In the weekends, they developed prototypes of his washing machine and demonstrated it at hospitals and kindergartens. Unfortunately, they didn’t sell a lot of machines. They even thought about abandoning the distribution completely. But then came covid-19 in 2020.
There was a great need for higher and more preventative hygiene standards. All of the previous potential clients rang Maurizio’s phone, looking to buy one of his machines. Maurizio patented his product. “It is a hybrid between a washing machine and a dishwasher, which combines processes from both apparatuses. I was astounded when I discovered no one in the world had ever patented something like that”.
Predictive AI
The machine is called Toyswash. It features a complex cleaning method that supports fluid and steam pressure-washing. In a rigorous order, items are washed, sanitized with a chemical agent, thoroughly re-washed, and dried. When using fluids, the washing utilizes hot jets which hit the spinning basket inside the machine, making sure to get every part of a toy’s surface adequately cleaned.
Maurizio and his team are now developing a new machine with predictive Artificial Intelligence (AI). In the future, the machine chooses the intensity of the cleansing by itself. However, this project is still in its early stages.
‘Passion for what I do’
Currently, TecWash is looking for the right partners and investors, who will not only bring money to the table, but also expertise and strategic value. “The product is there. It’s not just an idea that has to be developwed from scratch” – says Maurizio. “In this sense, TecWash is somewhat of an a-typical start-up. We are already in the pre-production stage, looking to gather a level of capital which will allow us to expand into the European market. “Overall, I’d say it’s a dumb idea, which everyone says is brilliant,” Maurizio jokes, “but actually, I do have a passion for what I do”.
