In 2021, during her studies at the Textile Faculty of the University of Liberec, Petra Doubková entered a competition with a project for a detergent that would be a gentler alternative to traditional powders or gels. She won and subsequently decided to transform the initial idea into a business.
Her washing papers just need to be put in the washing machine together with the clothes, and after contact with water, the cleaning agent will be released from them. The product was created as a gentler alternative to traditional powders or gels, where, thanks to its composition, it not only poses a smaller burden on the environment, but also damages clothes less.
“The form of the tissue paper itself is not decisive, the composition is important. Thanks to it, people with atopic eczema use it a lot, because they are not heavily perfumed like traditional products,” explains Doubková, who did not invent the shape of the tissue paper herself, but was the first to bring them to the Czech market. According to her, their indisputable advantage is also that they are light and easily portable.
Washing papers from startup EcoHaus |
When starting the company, Doubková decided to go the route without investors. Through a crowdfunding campaign, she collected a million crowns from people, which helped her launch the EcoHaus startup in 2022. She then provided the supporters with laundry papers. “That way, I could verify at the beginning that there would be interest in the product. In addition, I didn’t even have any investors around me who would make a good impression on me at first glance,” explains Doubková, who is the 100% owner of the company, her initial strategy.
It’s obviously paying off for her so far. EcoHaus started selling its laundry paper at the beginning of 2023. In three years, it managed to achieve a cumulative turnover of 71 million crowns. In addition, the company has almost doubled year-on-year. “In 2024, we had a turnover of 23 million, last year it was around forty,” says Doubková, adding that the startup is still self-sufficient and its products are now used by over 50,000 households.
New products with certification
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Today, EcoHaus no longer only sells laundry paper, but a whole range of household products, such as dishwasher salt, stain removers, but also dish sponges and tea towels. However, according to Doubková, the environmental friendliness of the products itself is not in the first place. “Primarily, the products must be functional, because ecological variants of various cleaning products often do not work. Then people will not buy them logically. And in combination with this, I want our products to be friendly to the environment, health and clothes,” he describes.
He wants to continue to expand the range of products. This month it introduces three new ones: a toilet cleaner, an all-purpose cleaner and a dishwashing detergent. She has already received certification for all of them EU Ecolabelwhich is managed by the European Commission and which marks products with high ecological standards. So far, only around have this certification in the drugstore and cosmetics segment 60 products from Czech companies, about a third of which comes from the Břeclav company Fosfa and its FeelEco brand.
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“It is difficult for a small brand like us to get this certificate, even from a financial point of view. But it is not one of those certificates that you pay for, there are really many criteria,” emphasizes Doubková.
Development in the Czech Republic instead of expansion
In addition to its own e-shop, EcoHaus today also sells products via Rohlík, Globus or Rossmann. “In the future, we would like to step more into retail and expand, especially into brick-and-mortar stores,” says Doubková. Geographically, however, he plans to stay only in the Czech Republic. “Expansion is a very demanding thing, where you bet on a big risk, we are primarily concerned with promoting the benefits to the Czech audience and focusing on education,” he adds. The presentation on social networks is a powerful weapon of a startup. His page has over 80,000 followers on Instagram alone, and 62,000 on Facebook.
In Liberec, where EcoHaus was founded, Doubková would like to start her own production in one of the local former factories in the future. “It’s our long-term vision, but it’s a long shot,” he says. So far, the startup is producing at several partner companies across the Czech Republic, with a small part of production taking place abroad.
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date:2026-02-08 05:00:00