FoldiMate was set up in 2012 and ran an unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign the following year to develop what was, at the time, a prototypical version of its idea. A further three years of development have turned the FoldiMate into a refined 28 x 32 x 31-in (71 x 81 x 79-cm) version that can dewrinkle, treat and fold most items of laundry. That's about washer-sized and it's designed to be stacked on top of a washer or dryer.

The FoldiMate Family, as the first commercially available version is called, is designed to minimize folding hassle in the home. Rather than folding each item of freshly washed clothing in turn and with varying degrees of quality, the user simply clips 15-20 items of onto the front of the machine. The FoldiMate then takes them in one at a time and ultimately outputs a pile of neatly and uniformly folded laundry on a pull-out tray, which has a capacity of up to 10-30 items depending on thickness.