Even before finding out Twipes won a $1 million 43North contest prize, CEO Al Borz had booked flights to Buffalo early next year.
That’s because he’s in the process of hiring an operations manager here. During the contest process, he said he fell in love with Buffalo and all it has to offer his business, a bio-tech company that’s developed a material that can break down in water in three hours and biodegrade in a landfill in seven days.
Twipes is launching sales in America, and Borz wanted to do distribution and manufacturing in Buffalo. So when he found out just last week that his London-based company has been tapped to replace an originally named contest winner, Agape Wellness Inc., it felt “like a dream.”
“We were going to go ahead with the expansion but on a slower, smaller scale,” he said. “We wanted to hire an operations manager and do distribution in Buffalo and slowly move over to manufacturing. Now we won. Everything has just accelerated.”
Founded in 2015, the startup spent about five years doing research and design and sold its first pack of wipes in December 2020. Since then, Twipes’ team has grown from two to nine.
In addition to the $1 million 43North prize, the startup has raised nearly $1 million led by Aster and Startup Wise Guys. Twipes won the mayor of London’s 2017 entrepreneur competition and this year got into the tech2impact accelerator.
Last year, the company did just over $440,000 in sales in the United Kingdom. The business plans to launch U.S. sales on its website the first week of February and expand to selling with partners by the summer, according to Borz.
“People want actually ecofriendly wipes,” he said. “So it’s really encouraging for us because it shows we can go into bigger markets like America and have traction there too.”
As part of the America. expansion, Twipes wanted a place in the U.S. for distribution and manufacturing. Buffalo fit the bill, with its plethora of empty facilities ideal for manufacturing. The University at Buffalo has an “award-winning materials lab” that the business could tap into by creating a hiring plan with the school, Borz added.
The business aims to start in-house manufacturing in Buffalo in fall 2023. Twipes expects to create 16 local jobs by the end of 2023, as well as bringing most of its existing team members to Buffalo from London. As part of the 43North prize, the business must move headquarters to the Queen City.
It’s a big move, but Borz said he was welcomed by Buffalo businesses during his visit and wants to integrate his company into the community.
“We’re just super excited to be back in Buffalo,” he said.
