What If the Most Ordinary Object in Your Home Could Change an Entire Industry?
Most of us use one every single day. We inherited it. We never think about it.
A towel.
Not exactly the product you'd expect to sit at the center of one of Europe's most compelling circular economy stories. And yet, that is exactly what Jim Tachek, founder and CEO of Kushel, has built, a business that is quietly rewriting the rules of how we produce, consume, and return everyday products back to life.
The Problem Nobody Was Talking About
The global textile industry consumes enormous amounts of water, energy, and raw materials. And yet, the conversation around fixing it has remained stuck at the level of "use better materials."
Jim went further.
He didn't just want Kushel to be less harmful. He wanted it to give back more than it takes. That meant designing products for circularity from day one — long before circular economy became a boardroom buzzword — and building a business model where customers don't just buy a product, they become part of a living loop.
A Closed Loop That Actually Works
Here is what makes Kushel genuinely different from the wave of "eco-friendly" brands flooding the market.
When a customer is done with their Kushel towel, they send it back. The fibers are separated, recycled, and woven into the inner construction of new towels, while virgin fibers are used for the outer loops to maintain that premium feel. The result is a product that looks and feels new, carries no trace of its past life, and is ready to enter the loop all over again.
The proof is in the community:
83% of customers who send back their old towels redeem their points and buy something new.
That is not just a recycling statistic. That is proof of something far more valuable, a community that genuinely wants to be part of the solution, and a brand that has earned the right to lead them there.
The Business Model Behind the Mission
Circular businesses attract enormous attention. Very few become commercially successful. So what makes Kushel different?
Kushel is building what can best be described as a lifetime customer journey, starting with the bathroom, expanding to the bedroom, and now entering the mattress category. Every product is designed to come back. Every return deepens the customer relationship. And in a world where customer acquisition costs are rising sharply, that depth of loyalty is becoming one of the most valuable assets a brand can have.
The community has already helped plant 1 million trees, two years ahead of schedule. The next goal: recycle 1 million towels. Not because it will single-handedly save the planet, but because if a small Hamburg-based team can do it, the IKEAs and Zara Homes of the world have no excuse not to follow.
What Investors Need to Understand
Kushel is currently raising its Series A and the opportunity is worth understanding properly.
The value of this circular model is not simply in the cost savings from recycled materials. It lives in the customer lifetime value, the earned media from a story worth telling, and the compounding loyalty of a community that grows by thousands every month.
Kushel has already run five successful crowdfunding campaigns, built a community that co-designs products through quarterly questionnaires, and attracted a crowd investment round where 300 members of their own community became shareholders.
This is what genuine product-market fit looks like in the impact space.
The Sentence That Says It All
When asked what single idea he would want the world to take away from everything he has built, Jim's answer was immediate:
"Try to leave this world in a better situation than you found it."
That sentence is also the investment thesis.
Because in the decade ahead, the brands that build genuine closed loops, earn deep community trust, and design products that return — those are the businesses that will outlast the ones still optimizing for the cheapest possible supply chain.
Kushel is proof that impact and quality are not opposites. That circularity is not a compromise. And that sometimes, changing an entire industry starts not with a grand invention but with a towel.
🎥 Hear Jim tell the full story himself:
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