Why Did Two Industrial Designers Start a Soap Company?

Our mission is to make hand washing with soap fun and accessible for kids world over.

Cofounders shubham issar and amanat anand

Why did we start Soapen?

Co-founders Amanat Anand and Shubham Issar grew up in New Delhi, India and met in the Industrial Design program at the Parsons School of Design. Passionate about designing for social impact, they found the UNICEF Wearables for Good Challenge which highlighted a statistic that moved them - more than 50% of infectious diseases that lead to fatalities among kids under 5 can be avoided by the simple act of washing hands with soap. They started thinking “how can we make hand washing with soap fun?" and create behavior change among kids through design. That's how the concept of Soap Pen- a hand soap kids can draw with before scrubbing up came about. 

Hearts on hand with soap pens

Winning the UNICEF challenge was the first step in making Soap Pen a reality. In 2019, they launched a beta version of Soap Pen which got an amazing response from parents. Then 2020 happened, and handwashing with soap became more important than ever before in modern times. With the new and improved Soap Pen launched in 2023, they're on a mission to make handwashing with soap fun and accessible to kids all over the world.

Indigenous kids enjoying soap pens at a handwashing awareness campaign

For every purchase, we donate soap or a percentage of profits to partner organizations that passionately support children's hygiene and health.
We've conducted successful hand washing awareness campaigns in India and the Philippines using Soap Pen as a teaching tool and are excited to grow our impact.
Thank you for supporting our cause with your purchase.

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