Marathon Laundry Machines, an internet-connected, touch screen appliance company located in Milwaukee's Menomonee Valley, recently secured investment from a Chicago-based private investment group to scale the business.
Founded by Glenn Reid, Marathon Laundry combines a washer and a dryer into one to require less supervision. The machine is accompanied by a smartphone app for remote operation and monitoring. The machines cost $2,499.
The funding – $2.74 million, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission – will be applied toward the product launch of the company's Marathon Elite Series I machine in the first quarter of 2021, Reid said. The machine will be assembled in the company's Milwaukee facility on West St. Paul Avenue. The company has expanded into 21,500 square feet in the former American Radiator Co. building, Reid said.
Funding will also be applied to hiring and marketing.
Reid is a former software engineer at Apple Inc. who worked closely with Steve Jobs. At Apple, he helped develop the digital video editing application iMovie in the late 1990s.
Reid worked for Jobs in the late 1980s at NeXT Inc., the computer company Jobs founded after his forced resignation from Apple. Reid left NeXT to form another venture, RightBrain Software in 1991, which built software applications for NeXT systems. He moved on to Adobe Systems, where he became one of the first 25 employees.
Jobs recruited Reid back to Apple after it acquired NeXT and needed employees familiar with the NeXT technology. While at Apple, he also developed iPhoto, a discontinued digital photo application.
