Has an Israeli innovator made folding laundry by hand a thing of the past?
Israeli-led startup seeks to introduce new appliance into average household: The laundry folding machine
An Israeli-led Silicon Valley tech startup has introduced an appliance that promises to remove one pesky task off the average Joe’s to-do list: folding laundry.
Meet FoldiMate, the brainchild of long-term Israeli product and software executive Gal Rozov, self-described as “a 21st century lifestyle evangelist.”
Rozov, along with his development team, seeks to simplify household chores through robotics and technology. The FoldiMate, in development since 2011, is the first materialized vision of the consumer-oriented robotics startup company. It has yet to start marketing the product, but demand is already steadily growing.
Nearly 58,000 people have registered on the company’s site - online for less than a month - and are eagerly tracking the go-to-market process of a product which will only be available for pre-order in 2017, with first shipments expected in 2018.
So what exactly is the hype about?
FoldiMate automates the laundry-folding process by bringing a robotic appliance into your already busy laundry room. Rozov and his team hope to introduce a new standard in household appliances with the launch of the product, which takes 10 seconds to fold, and an additional 20-30 seconds to de-wrinkle each item via a steam function.
But the process is not effortless, and it has its limits. Consumers are required to clip clothing items onto a machine, and not simply toss them in as they would with a washer or dryer. Moreover, the FoldiMate at this point is built to process standard-size articles of clothing exclusively. Small items like undergarments, and larger items such as sheets or towels, must still be folded by hand.
A 2014 study conducted by Whirlpool found that consumers, on average, spend 11 hours per week on mundane household chores. Nearly all of them – 95 percent of consumers – sought improved efficiency in appliances. Questioned about potential innovations, 46% expressed interest in an appliance with laundry-folding capabilities.
The Whirlpool study may be two years old, but its results hold true. Consumers still seek efficiency in the household, and FoldiMate provides a partial solution. The FoldiMate won’t come cheap, though: expected to retail at $750-$850, the appliance becomes more of a luxury than a household necessity.