2 dads look to crowdfunding to build a better bottle washer

Ricky Hee and Alex Djojoutomo (l-r, with their eldest children) are turning to crowdfunding to take their bottle-washer to market. 

Two dads from Perth have tackled one of the time-consuming challenges of infant children, building a better bottle washer they hope will save parents time.

Ricky Hee, a management consultant and father of two, and Alex Djojoutomo, a property consultant with his own two kids, have spent four years developing 3-in-1 bottle cleaner, steriliser and dryer.

They’ve taken the idea to working prototype thanks for $500,000 in seed funding, trademarked the name Bottle Bath, applied for a US patent and are now looking to test the market with a Kickstarter crowdfunding.

The idea was inspired by their own experience as parents and not finding anything with a 3-in-1 design.

Alex Djojoutomo said parents spend a minimum of one hour manually cleaning, sterilising and drying bottles every a day, based on an average of seven daily feeds. Bottle Bath can clean, sterilise and dry up to four baby bottles at once in less than an hour.

“We have worked hard with an international team of industrial design and engineering experts to get the design and functions right and we’re now ready to move to the next stage of development and mass production,” he said.

Djojoutomo said the Kickstarter campaign for Bottle Bath will run through November.

“Ideally, we’re looking for like-minded entrepreneurs or businesses in the baby products sector to partner with us in expanding the Bottle Bath distribution network globally or assist us with financial backing,” he said.

“We’d like to build a community of consumers and supporters who believe in our mission to help make parenting life easier.”

More about the Bottle Bath Kickstarter campaign is available here.