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Women’s urinal startup sets sights on global expansion
Users have hailed them as “amazing”, “innovative” and “game-changing”.
A women’s urinal startup, which has appeared at the London Marathon and major music festivals, including Glastonbury and Shambala, has set its sights on worldwide expansion.
PEEQUAL, founded by the University of Bristol alumni Hazel McShane and Amber Probyn, is the startup behind the portable women’s urinals that have gained traction recently for cutting down queuing times by nearly threefold.
The Bristol-founded company has raised £925,000 to expand its innovative urinals to events across Europe, the US and Australia.
PEEQUAL was founded by the University of Bristol alumni Hazel McShane and Amber Probyn – photo: PEEQUAL
For Hazel and Amber, it all started from a real place where necessity met innovation.
As music lovers attending festivals, they were daunted by the long queues for toilets. So it was a toss up between joining the queue for the loos or the food truck. And so PEEQUAL was born.
The funding follows strong international demand and will be used to manufacture PEEQUAL’s next-generation, flatpack urinals designed for export.
Hazel said: “We’ve heard from events and toilet suppliers around the world keen to use our women’s urinals. Like us, they want women spending less time in queues and more time enjoying the events they love.
“This funding means we can export this British innovation and give the gift of shorter queues to women across the world.”
The “game-changer” women’s urinals reported to have slashed the queuing times by threefold – photo: PEEQUAL
Amber added: “We knew women would welcome any innovation that meant they didn’t have to queue for hours. What we didn’t expect was how much love the urinals would receive, and we’ve been blown away by the support women give us at events.
“We are really proud to be a female-led startup and we are honoured that so many amazing female investors have chosen to back us.”
The new stackable design allows nearly three times as many units to fit on a single lorry compared to traditional portaloos, a move expected to cut transport emissions and congestion.
Created to slash waiting times, PEEQUAL’s urinals are reported to be 2.7 times faster to use than the standard portaloos.
Since debuting in 2022, they have appeared at more than 25 major events and have been used over 1.25 million times.
The new stackable design allows nearly three times as many units to fit on a single lorry compared to traditional portaloos – photo: PEEQUAL
User feedback has shaped several engineering improvements in the new model, including flippable occupied signs, improved splashbacks and easier drainage and mobility around event sites.
The company’s latest funding round, its third to date, bringing total investment to £1.4m, was largely backed by female investors and entrepreneurs passionate about equality and sustainability.
Impact investor Julie Davies of We Have The POWER said: “What I really love about PEEQUAL is its potential for a huge sustainability impact by reducing toxic waste generation at events.”
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Music agent Emma Banks, another investor, added: “I’m delighted to support these two inspiring women tackling an inequality that has been so obvious for a long time — and now has a great solution.”
Main photo: Bhagesh Sachancia
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