The Robot Report

  • Home
  • News
  • Technologies
    • Batteries / Power Supplies
    • Cameras / Imaging / Vision
    • Controllers
    • End Effectors
    • Microprocessors / SoCs
    • Motion Control
    • Sensors
    • Soft Robotics
    • Software / Simulation
  • Development
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Human Robot Interaction / Haptics
    • Mobility / Navigation
    • Research
  • Robots
    • AGVs
    • AMRs
    • Consumer
    • Collaborative Robots
    • Drones
    • Humanoids
    • Industrial
    • Self-Driving Vehicles
    • Unmanned Maritime Systems
  • Business
    • Financial
      • Investments
      • Mergers & Acquisitions
      • Earnings
    • Markets
      • Agriculture
      • Healthcare
      • Logistics
      • Manufacturing
      • Mining
      • Security
    • RBR50
      • RBR50 Winners 2025
      • RBR50 Winners 2024
      • RBR50 Winners 2023
      • RBR50 Winners 2022
      • RBR50 Winners 2021
  • Resources
    • Automated Warehouse Research Reports
    • Digital Issues
    • eBooks
    • Publications
      • Automated Warehouse
      • Collaborative Robotics Trends
    • Search Robotics Database
    • Videos
    • Webinars / Digital Events
  • Events
    • RoboBusiness
    • Robotics Summit & Expo
    • DeviceTalks
    • R&D 100
    • Robotics Weeks
  • Podcast
    • Episodes
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

Laundry robots could get foothold in the home for automation

By Oliver Mitchell | March 23, 2019

Laundry robots could get foothold in the home for automation

FoldiMate laundry robot. Credit: Debbie Cohen-Abravanel

Last week, attending the Our Crowd Summit, I felt engulfed by the breadth of innovation and minds gathered in Jerusalem’s International Convention Center. Jonathan Medved’s billion-dollar crowd-funding platform has launched some of Israel’s most promising mechatronic startups, including ReWalk, Intuition Robotics, Airobotics, and Argus Cyber Security. Household robotics, such as laundry robots, could yet be the next big thing.

Medved’s success is thanks to his infectious positivity and confidence that fosters collaboration across the venture ecosystem. In the words of the Summit’s concluding speaker, Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, “Optimism is the engine of capitalism. … The people who make great things, if you look back, they were overconfident and optimistic — overconfident optimists.”

Following Dr. Kahneman’s remarks, I met the the self-assured entrepreneur of FoldiMate, Gal Rozov. The laundry robots startup made headlines this past January at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) demonstrating its novel approach to smart home automation.

This week, the founder shared with me the genesis of his idea: “I always felt that I should share the burden of the household chores, but I am the first to admit that I am not very good at chores and do not particularly enjoy them.”

Rozov confessed, “My wife didn’t approve of my laundry folding standards,” and then it hit him, “perhaps if there was a machine that could do the difficult part of the folding for me, I could help with this tiresome and hefty chore.”

He compared his invention with other other household appliances: “It would do the difficult part – the folding, just as the dishwasher does the cleaning.”

It’s a curious juxtaposition as the creator of KitchenAid’s most successful product, Josephine Cochran, unveiled the first working mechanical dishwasher at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. However, it took another 65 years before consumers started to install units in their homes. Instead, KitchenAid’s customers prior to its postwar sales boom consisted of hotels and large restaurants.

Laundry robots go commercial first

The home consumer market has been the ruin of many upstarts, Rozov’s fresh perspective, perhaps inspired by Cochran’s story, provides value lessons for budding robot entrepreneurs. Rather than positioning FoldiMate as a new appliance merchandised at electronic stories next to washers and dryers, the company is tackling the commercial laundry space first.

“Based on our calculations, according to the current U.S. population, we estimate that each day in the U.S. alone, over 120 million items are being folded manually in laundromats and shared laundry rooms,” Rlozov said. When asking him to quantify this amount, the executive projected that approximately 800,000 hours a day are spent folding clothes, translating to $5.8 million of hourly payroll at the existing minimum wage of $7.25.

According to Rozov, the billion-dollar market opportunity could be even higher. “We don’t know how many items are being folded in other businesses such as clothing stores, but it’s safe to assume that it is not less than laundromats, and probably a lot more,” he said.

“FoldiMate folds a laundry load of around 25 items in less than 5 minutes, and after recent tests where we tested humans folding alongside FoldiMate, we discovered that it folds at least twice as fast as a human,” gloated Rozov. This data translates into significant payroll savings and increased sales opportunities for clothing merchandisers, including such folding-obsessed stores as Gap Inc.

Gap employees notice that folding laundry takes time from customer service.

FoldiMate is not the first automatic clothing folding machine, but it is currently the only portable laundry robot priced under $1,000. For years, garment manufacturers have used industrial folders that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to pack apparel orders.

In 2018 at CES, Japanese startup Seven Dreamers, introduced Laundroid, a $16,000 intelligent apparel organizer that includes folding drawers for creased laundry to be pressed and stacked elegantly onto the closet’s shelves.

Unlike FoldiMate, which uses clips to bend and tuck fabrics into crisp pleats, the Asian version utilizes robotic arms and a database of over 250,000 images to scan, recognize, and fold into neat bundles. In reviewing Laundroid in 2018, Verge writer Dami Lee stated, “You’ll need a couple of hours for it to finish folding a load of laundry, as one T-shirt takes about 5–10 minutes to fold.”

Laundroid and Foldimate are competing for the laundry-folding robot market.

With $90 million of capital invested in the company and a Panasonic engineering partnership, Seven Dreamers is not deterred, as it is on track to release a less expensive, more efficient version later this year to compete directly against FoldiMate.

Another approach to laundry robots

While Laundroid and FoldiMate tussle to conquer the $40 billion laundry robot market, many roboticists are taking a different approach. In 2017, researchers at the Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain demonstrated a humanoid, named TEO, capable of handling domestic ironing jobs. The lab programmed TEO with wrinkle detection computer vision technology to quickly press out the creases.

In the words of its creator, Dr. Juan Victores, “TEO is built to do what humans do as humans do it. We will have robots like TEO in our homes. It’s just a matter of who does it first.”

MIT gripper blooms

Dr. Victores’ prediction of cyborg-butlers took a step closer to reality this week with the announcement of the successful test of a new type of soft mechanical gripper at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Prof. Daniela Rus displayed the origami end effector to the press, showing how the flower-like appendage is able to pick up heavy objects of varying sizes and depths.

“By combining this foldable skeleton with the soft exterior, we get the best of both worlds,” she explained. “I’m excited about using such a robot hand to start grasping groceries.”

According to latest experiments by Dr. Rus, the usual arm is able to hoist 100 times its weight, promising to augment the heavy lifting for the world’s aging population.

MIT flexible robotic gripper

While the sun is setting on the first generation of home robotics as exemplified with the shuttering of Jibo and Kuri, smart appliances are very much alive with the advancement of hardware like laundry robots and recent academic breakthroughs.

Rozov optimistically stated: “We don’t think we should compare FoldiMate to Jibo and Kuri. We feel that the world has been waiting for a viable solution to the folding problem for decades, and FoldiMate is the first natural step that solves the major part of the problem.”

His tenacity in pushing the industry forward is reminiscent of the perseverance of Cochran in the nineteenth century, who set out to free women from the bondage of dirty dishes by proclaiming, “If nobody else is going to invent a dish washing machine, I’ll do it myself!”

Even though they are separated by more than one hundred years, Cochran and Rozov fulfill Kahneman’s theory on the determination of entrepreneurs, “They take big risks because they underestimate how big the risks are.”

About The Author

Oliver Mitchell

Oliver Mitchell is a partner at ff Venture Capital. Oliver first joined ff VC in 2014 as a Limited Partner, and then in 2018 as a Venture Partner. Today, he takes a leading role on the investment team in expanding the portfolio’s deep tech position with holdings in robotics, drones, artificial intelligence, and industrial automation technologies. Oliver also works with ffVC’s investor relations in forging strategic relationships for our limited partners and corporate venture groups. In addition, he serves on the boards of Civ Robotics, Cambrian Intelligence, AppBind, Storyfit, and Cardflight.

Previously, Oliver ran his own investment portfolio of a dozen companies that have since returned 8 exits, including two IPOs (NVCR and EKSO) and one unicorn (Triple Lift) with a combined value of over $20 billion. Previous startup outcomes have included selling Holmes Protection to ADT/Tyco, AmeriCash to American Express, and launching RobotGalaxy, a national consumer S.T.E.M. brand. Oliver is an Adjunct Professor at Sy Syms School of Business, and frequent writer of trade periodicals.

Comments

  1. Nicolas says

    April 5, 2019 at 4:11 am

    Great article!!Tell us when we can buy the first one!!

    Reply
  2. Thoko says

    June 25, 2020 at 4:54 pm

    I am from south African how much will it cost me to get 1 for my laundry business??

    Reply

Tell Us What You Think! Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Articles Read More >

The Northeastern team that won the MassRobotics Form & Function Challenge.
Northeastern soft robotic arm wins MassRobotics Form & Function Challenge at Robotics Summit
application image of amazon robotics vulcan robot.
Amazon’s Vulcan robot uses force sensing to stow items
Two Glacier robotic recycling sorter systems in a MRF.
Glacier brings in $16M and announces new Recology King deployment
RightHand Robotics' RightPick and an ASRS demonstrate lights out fulfillment.
Learn how warehouse automation is leading to ‘lights out’ fulfillment

RBR50 Innovation Awards

“rr
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest info on technologies, tools and strategies for Robotics Professionals.
The Robot Report Listing Database

Latest Episode of The Robot Report Podcast

Automated Warehouse Research Reports

Sponsored Content

  • Sager Electronics and its partners, logos shown here, will exhibit at the 2025 Robotics Summit & Expo. Sager Electronics to exhibit at the Robotics Summit & Expo
  • The Shift in Robotics: How Visual Perception is Separating Winners from the Pack
  • An AutoStore automated storage and retrieval grid. Webinar to provide automated storage and retrieval adoption advice
  • Smaller, tougher devices for evolving demands
  • Modular motors and gearboxes make product development simple
The Robot Report
  • Mobile Robot Guide
  • Collaborative Robotics Trends
  • Field Robotics Forum
  • Healthcare Robotics Engineering Forum
  • RoboBusiness Event
  • Robotics Summit & Expo
  • About The Robot Report
  • Subscribe
  • Contact Us

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search The Robot Report

  • Home
  • News
  • Technologies
    • Batteries / Power Supplies
    • Cameras / Imaging / Vision
    • Controllers
    • End Effectors
    • Microprocessors / SoCs
    • Motion Control
    • Sensors
    • Soft Robotics
    • Software / Simulation
  • Development
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Human Robot Interaction / Haptics
    • Mobility / Navigation
    • Research
  • Robots
    • AGVs
    • AMRs
    • Consumer
    • Collaborative Robots
    • Drones
    • Humanoids
    • Industrial
    • Self-Driving Vehicles
    • Unmanned Maritime Systems
  • Business
    • Financial
      • Investments
      • Mergers & Acquisitions
      • Earnings
    • Markets
      • Agriculture
      • Healthcare
      • Logistics
      • Manufacturing
      • Mining
      • Security
    • RBR50
      • RBR50 Winners 2025
      • RBR50 Winners 2024
      • RBR50 Winners 2023
      • RBR50 Winners 2022
      • RBR50 Winners 2021
  • Resources
    • Automated Warehouse Research Reports
    • Digital Issues
    • eBooks
    • Publications
      • Automated Warehouse
      • Collaborative Robotics Trends
    • Search Robotics Database
    • Videos
    • Webinars / Digital Events
  • Events
    • RoboBusiness
    • Robotics Summit & Expo
    • DeviceTalks
    • R&D 100
    • Robotics Weeks
  • Podcast
    • Episodes
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe