Cycle Wants to Get Used to the Use of Recharge Services in the Community

While living in India and the Philippines, Jane von Rabenau saw the huge amount of plastic waste and thought of appropriate solutions to reduce the amount. In Indonesia, he was inspired to develop a solution to reuse plastic as a refill container for daily necessities with the name Cycle.

"A lot of low-income customers will use this as a cheaper alternative to bottled water. So, I thought, why can't we do this for products that are usually sold in bottles? sachet, said Jane.

Cycles are part of the Teja Ventures portfolio. Previously, the company had received investment from Golden Space Capital, Zenius CEO Rohan Monga, and Chief Commercial Officer Gojek Antoine de Carbonnell. The Refill Cycle also received a grant from Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals (P4G).

Leveraging partnerships with leading FMCG companies, such as Wings, P&G, Nestle, Total Chemindo, Cycle provides refilling posts mobile devices using a motor that makes it easy for consumers to refill shampoo, detergent, and floor cleaning fluid.

"One jerry can of shampoo [carried by the officer] can save the cost of making 2.500 sachets. We then sell it to our customers through the refill post mobile devices, to ensure that they can buy as little or as much as they like at a lower price and without having to worry about paying for plastic packaging. In the future we also plan to monetize ads on recharge posts and applications," said Jane.

Currently, Cycle has about 25 refilling posts spread across the Greater Jakarta area. The company claims to get a positive response from users. Last March, Cycle launched an app for Android.

Cycle Challenge

The pandemic is claimed not to have affected the company's business growth too much. By leveraging direct to customer home delivery services, the Cycle business is able to survive. The company even continues to increase the number of employees.

"Pandemics are a time when we must reflect and unite to face today's challenges. Plastic pollution has skyrocketed during the pandemic and now, more than ever, we must come together to tackle the plastic crisis," Jane said.

The challenges that Cycle still faces are building a circular supply chain with FMCG companies and creating new social norms around the concept of replenishment.

"Our goal is to expand our service to three more cities, add more products, and improve our dispensing technology. We are excited to bring the refill revolution to other regions of Indonesia, especially those hardest hit by the plastic crisis," said Jane.