Charlie Thompson
What?
The CLEAN COLLECTIVE, which started in 2017.
What was the impetus?
The Clean Collective is the fastest-growing marketplace for sustainable purchases in Australia. The online hub brings together products and information on wellness and sustainability. The business hopes to “make a difference to human and planetary health, and finding investors that are interested in changing the world.”
“I was double-checking every ingredient on natural websites against my own research, and realised that there was a gap in the market for something different; something more authentic that was truly toxin-free and eco-friendly, that brought everything together all in one place,” says Charlie, the CEO and cofounder of The Clean Collective.
The company maintains the Australia’s strictest chemical and material procurement policy and sells products that tackle climate change while allowing consumers to take ownership of their health.
In 2017, we profiled another Aussie brand that was tackling climate change by offering small loans to homeowners looking to make clean energy home improvements, covering everything from solar panels to household batteries, automation and hot water systems.
Clean Collective products include personal care, cleaning and reusable products on its online shop, while publishing information on ways to create a healthier and more eco-friendly lifestyle on its personal development blog.
Thompson wants to find investors that respect people, respect the planet, and understand that investing in our future is not only money and energy incredibly well spent, but an absolute necessity for civilisation.
Thompson’s background:
She was the Global Digital and Content Strategist at American Express (Based in the UK) She was International Marketing Manager of Tourism Australia and studied English Literature at the University of East Anglia.
At the age of ten, she says she launched her first ‘business’, making and selling jewellery at her parents’ farm shop. “While I would have loved a profession in jewellery design, the harsh reality was that it wasn’t the quality of my pieces that generated sales but my relentless presentation of all the ways they could be adorned to the poor, unsuspecting people trying to buy eggs!”
What has the company achieved so far?
In less than two years, the company has earned more than $600K in revenue from over 10K transactions, attracted over 400,000 visitors, and amassed over 80,000 followers and subscribers.
So far, their products have prevented over 2 million litres of toxic chemical products being used, diverted more than 1.9 million single use items from landfill and removed over 6,000 of plastic from the environment. As a business, they have planted over 54,000 trees, offsetting Australia’s Christmas wrapping paper consumption and they also support the charity Take 3 for the Sea, an NGO that run programs to educate people on the toxic effects of plastic pollution on the sea.
Thompson and her co-founders Georgia Lawson and Charli Ferrand are now planning to raise through crowd founding.
Recently, Thompson wrote a piece on her business’ website, where she describes an experience where she received an invitation to attend an investment event in Silicon Valley, dedicated to social impact start-ups. She called it a ‘manipulation and gas-lighting” experience.
The aim for the crowd funding (from her mission statement) is to:
raise capital to grow the ecommerce operation while expanding their business with an app and personal development products, in partnership with experts in wellness and sustainability.
They are seeking investment to scale the brand domestically and overseas to drive bigger impact for humanity and our planet.
The Clean Collective is now equity crowd-source funding with Equitise (an online equity crowdfunding platform connecting startups and high growth businesses with a broad range of investors, helping businesses grow and thrive in a simple, intuitive and social way by disrupting the investment marketplace and removing the traditional funding barriers and costs)
The crowd sourcing project is seeking 12,500 people to invest $120 in the future of human and planetary health. Conversely, investors will profit from The Clean Collective’s success, receive rewards such as discounts, early bird access and exclusive passes, and help remove 37,500 pieces of plastic pollution from the environment and plant 12,500 trees when it hit its target of raising $1.5M.
“By opening up equity to everyday Australians and the crowd, we’re looking forward to bringing in investors who are passionate about changing the future of our planet and the future of humanity,” Thompson said. “Equity crowdfunding provides us a way to remain a community owned by our community, rather than selling capital to a single party that doesn’t align with our ethics or purpose.”
What’s in the future?
Next year, The Clean Collective’s business model will include new revenue streams from an app and personal development platform, scaling the brand globally.
You can join them on Facebook (@cleancollective) and Instagram (@thecleancollective) for tips, tricks and solutions to healthy and eco-friendly living.