After announcing its success in increasing the usage of recycled plastics, Kärcher, the Germany-based family-owned company turned its head to the Finnish company, Mysoda, which builds sparkling water makers from sustainable biocomposite. After the transaction, Kärcher now holds a meaningful minority stake of larger than 25% of Mysoda. With the financing from Kärcher, Mysoda is expecting to have positive effects on a global level for its sustainable sparkling water concept.
Kärcher includes Mysoda in its family
Launched in 2011, Mysoda has decided to differentiate itself by being the most sustainable alternative in the already sustainable home carbonation category. With smaller local production units Mysoda minimizes transports and by replacing fossile plastics with biocomposite Mysoda takes the sustainability of its machines to a whole new level. The company’s founders include many industry veterans which some of them formerly worked at SodaStream. In addition to the machines, the Finnish company also produces CO2 and flavour concentrates. Mysoda’s marketing attitude is to present something important in a fancy look which means the eco-friendly attitude of the company comes with a timeless design.
“From the first meeting, Kärcher has felt like a perfect partner for us,” says David Solomon, CEO of Mysoda. “Kärcher shares our conviction of putting sustainability first, and I get really excited thinking about our cooperation and opportunities. They have decades of experience in sustainability, brand building, marketing and expanding to new markets. After all the startup pains, it also feels really good to make the move from an underfunded startup to a well-capitalized growth company. We compete with bigger companies, and thanks to this substantial minority investment we now have the resources to stand our ground.”
Focusing on sustainable and people-oriented company development, Kärcher was founded 1935 by Alfred Kärcher. Since then, they kept the company in the family and now Susanne Zimmermann von Siefart and Johannes Kärcher are in charge. The company mainly concentrates on cleaning and maintenance products even though there are many brands under its corporate group.
Ecofriendly motives of both
Kärcher’s interest is mainly aimed at the development and expansion of the brand activities of Mysoda as well as the further development of sustainable products. Mysoda’s sparkling water-makers help reduce the usage of PET bottles which has positive effects on nature. Besides, the design itself does not contain any plastics which is a motive for Kärcher’s capital outlay since it is a distinctive feature among others.
“We are positive about the innovative power of Mysoda, and are happy to actively support the company in its further growth. Mysoda’s products are convincing in terms of design, usability and environmental friendliness”, says Hartmut Jenner, Chairman of the Board of Management of the Alfred Kärcher SE & Co. KG. “Thanks to our unifying element water, we will create numerous synergies for a successful future together.”
Instead of fossil plastics, Mysoda’s choice for its design is to benefit from biocomposites. They are not butchering forests to produce them. They are made of a different kind of biocomposite called UPM Formi EcoAce. This is one other reason why their products are sustainable. The products even won awards which are the Red Dot Design Award and the iF gold award. MySoda won the Product of the Year 2022 with its French range of drink mixes.
“2021 revenues of MySoda were 9,5M€.” says Cami Hongell, Chairman of Mysoda. “Now WE are looking to strengthen our key markets in Europe and exploring new markets with Kärcher.”
Kärcher is interested in contributing to the development of the brand and be a guide in Mysoda’s journey in the water sector to represent its sustainable products. This means a huge gate is just opened for the Finnish startup considering Kärcher’s highly global brand presence and European production capacities. They can make significant contributions to create awareness of the risk perception on environmental concerns and influence consumer behaviours for the longer term.
