The EIC Accelerator Backed Mimbly's Laundry Recycler: The Results

Every wash in a shared laundry room uses 60 to 150 litres of fresh water, according to Mimbly, and releases about 700,000 synthetic microfibres, according to the company's EU project summary. Mimbly, a Gothenburg company, sells a cabinet that sits next to professional washing machines, filters the used water, checks whether it is clean enough to use again, and keeps back the microplastics. In May 2020 the European Innovation Council chose it in the Green Deal round of the EIC Accelerator pilot, and the EU put €1,850,625 into a 30-month project to take the box, called the Mimbox, to market.

The plan on CORDIS was ambitious: 15 customer pilots, certification, a manufacturing partner, and a device "used for over 100,000 washers by 2025, saving more than 1,200 tons of microplastics and 23 million m3 of water". Mimbly's own website now reports 246 Mimboxes installed in 7 countries. The product exists, real customers use it, and a large equipment maker has bought in. The scale is a small fraction of what was promised.

Where Mimbly Stands in 2026

Mimbly AB is an active limited company with Isabella Palmgren as chief executive and Jon Niklas Wakéus as chair, according to Bolagsverket data shown on Ratsit, checked on 18 October 2026. No insolvency or liquidation is recorded there. Its latest public news is from June 2026, when Mimbly, Electrolux Professional and Samhall were awarded SEK 8.7 million from Water Wise Societies, a programme backed by Vinnova, Formas and the Swedish Energy Agency, to build a retrofit water-reuse system for large commercial laundries. CB Insights lists the same grant on 29 June 2026.

On 6 November 2025 Electrolux Professional, a maker of food service and laundry equipment, announced a partnership and said it "will also take a minority stake in Mimbly", without giving an amount, according to its press release. Mimbly's articles of association were changed the same day, Ratsit shows. CB Insights records a $3.46 million round dated 6 November 2025 with Almi Invest, Electrolux Professional, Länsförsäkringar, Marinvest and undisclosed investors. Silicon Canals put the round at SEK 33 million, about €3 million, and reported that Palmgren aims for profitability by the end of 2026. In March 2026 Electrolux Professional said the two companies were "co-developing next-generation filtration solutions" in an article on laundry microplastics.

How the Mimbox Works

The Mimbox is a separate unit that plugs into the drain and inlet of existing machines. Water from a wash runs through a filter that holds back particles down to 50 microns; sensors measure its quality, and water that is clean enough is disinfected, stored and sent back into the next wash, while the rest goes to the drain without its microplastics, according to the product page. The current model, Mimbox 2, serves up to three professional machines of 8 to 10 kg, stores water for up to 24 hours, and needs its microplastics emptied about once a week, after roughly 2,000 litres. A cloud dashboard reports savings to the customer.

The alternative most of the market is moving towards is a filter built into each new machine, which France wrote into law for new washing machines from 1 January 2025 (see below). Mimbly's argument is the installed base: washing machines stay in use for "10+ years" on average, its EU report says, and a box that retrofits them avoids replacing equipment. Its own claims have changed over time, which matters for anyone comparing it with built-in filters.

Field figures come from the company. In a six-week pilot with the Kungsbacka housing company Eksta, Mimbly reports about 16,000 litres saved, some 26 litres per wash, and 1.2 kg of microplastics kept back, according to its pilot write-up. At Tyresö Bostäder it reports on its customer page a 53% recycling rate and 65,500 litres saved with five boxes over three months. These are useful numbers, but none has been verified by a third party.

What MIMBOX Promised, and What CORDIS Shows

The European Commission's list of companies selected in May 2020 names Mimbly of Gothenburg as the only beneficiary of MIMBOX, with grant-only funding. The grant agreement was signed on 9 September 2020 and the project ran on schedule from 1 October 2020 to 31 March 2023 under the topic "H2020-EIC Accelerator pilot, SME Instrument, Green Deal", with a total cost of €2,643,750. CORDIS lists the project as closed.

The final periodic report is modest about what was done. In the first period Mimbly produced 6 Mimbox units, installed 5 at customers in Sweden and ran them for up to six months. In the second it set up "a formal partnership with our production facility" and a production line, and built 5 commercial units "to validate the production and service as demonstrator units". The results page lists two patent applications filed by Mimbly AB, for a self-cleaning filter assembly (2020) and an intermediate storage device for laundry systems (2021); whether either has been granted could not be verified. The report does not mention any certification.

1. 15 B2B customer pilotsPartly5 pilot units at customers, plus 5 demonstrator units, per the CORDIS report.
2. Scalable manufacturing partnershipDeliveredFormal partnership and production line set up, per CORDIS.
3. Distribution channelsPartlyCoor framework deal per Mimbly; Electrolux Professional partnership came in 2025, after the project.
4. All certifications for market releaseNot achievedNo certification reported by CORDIS or the company.
5. Self-cleaning filter IPFiledTwo patent applications listed on CORDIS.
6. 100,000 washers by 2025Missed246 boxes reported, each serving up to 3 machines.
7. 1,200 tonnes of microplastics savedMissedPublished site results are in kilograms; no total reported.

Even at three machines per box, 246 Mimboxes would serve at most 738 washers, less than 1% of the 100,000 the proposal named for 2025. A grant pays for development, not sales, and on that narrower test Mimbly did build a product and a production set-up. The certification and scale milestones, which were part of the EIC plan, have not been announced.

Who Uses It

The buyers are housing companies, facility managers and laundries in Sweden. Gothenburg's municipal landlord Bostadsbolaget began a pilot in one laundry room in Majviken in February 2021, according to its press release, and the housing company Stångåstaden was running a pilot in a student area in July 2023, according to Studentbostäder. Mimbly's customer page names Tyresö Bostäder, Uppsalahem, Skandia Fastigheter, Samhall, the facility services group Coor, which it says signed a framework agreement for Nordic sites in 2022, Denmark's Royal Library and a Gothenburg hotel. Silicon Canals adds ISS, Sodexo and Einar Mattsson. Coor describes Mimbly as one of its sustainability partners on its website, without unit numbers.

The Money

The filed accounts show a company that grew during and after the EIC project, then hit a wall in 2024. Net sales rose from SEK 0.1 million in 2019/20 to SEK 6.4 million in 2023, then fell to SEK 3.4 million in 2024. The losses after financial items were SEK 18.9 million in 2023 and SEK 12.1 million in 2024, and staff fell from 16 to 14, according to Ratsit. Silicon Canals, citing Dagens Industri, gives the same losses and turnover of SEK 10.3 million and about SEK 7 million; those figures match Ratsit's total operating income, which also counts capitalised development work and other income.

During the two financial years that overlap the EIC project, July 2020 to December 2022, the accounts book SEK 14.3 million and SEK 11.8 million of other operating income, against net sales of SEK 0.2 million and SEK 0.5 million. The filings summary does not break that income down. The 18-month year to December 2021 is the only one with a profit, SEK 2.1 million.

Equity tells the funding story. It fell only from SEK 7.3 million to SEK 4.6 million in 2023 despite the SEK 18.9 million loss, and rose to SEK 7.6 million in 2024 despite a SEK 12.1 million loss. On those rounded figures, roughly SEK 16.2 million of new equity came in during 2023 and SEK 15.1 million during 2024. Silicon Canals reports SEK 16 million raised in 2024. Cash at the end of 2024 was SEK 1.3 million, against SEK 4.9 million of short-term debt. The 2025 accounts, which would show the Electrolux round, were not shown on Ratsit when checked.

Why Europe Should Care

Microplastics in wastewater are now an EU compliance matter. The recast Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive of November 2024 requires monitoring of microplastics for agglomerations of 10,000 population equivalent and above and in sludge reused in agriculture, tells member states to control microplastics at source, and asks the Commission to study an extended producer responsibility scheme for products that generate them. France went further: its 2020 anti-waste law says new washing machines must have a microfibre filter or another internal or external solution from 1 January 2025, but the implementing decree had still not been published when a French MP asked about it on 31 March 2026.

That uncertainty cuts both ways for Mimbly. A retrofit box that filters fibres and halves water use in shared laundries fits Europe's water-resilience and zero-pollution goals, and the "external solution" wording in the French law leaves room for it. But none of the rules cited here obliges a Swedish housing company to buy one, and Electrolux Professional describes its work with Mimbly as co-developing new filtration solutions, without saying whether they will be retrofits or built into machines.

The Verdict

Mimbly has not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records, company statements and EU project data, linked throughout.