Tim Morris is co-founder and CEO of Spotless Water, the Frimley-based company behind a network of 177 self-service pure water stations used by window cleaners, car detailers and solar panel maintenance firms.

In June 2026 the business secured £6.35m in a round led by YFM Equity Partners to speed up its roll-out, with a target of 1,200 stations by 2029. Morris set the company up in 2016 after struggling to source pure water for his first business, a mobile car-valeting firm, and the network has since dispensed more than 600 million litres. He tells Business Matters why British founders should think bigger, sooner.

What do you currently do at Spotless Water?

I am the CEO and co-founder of the business. We are building the UK’s only national network of self-service pure water filling stations. Powered by our patent-pending Ecoflow® technology, they provide 24/7 access to zero-TDS water for professional cleaning, detailing and maintenance businesses across the UK.

Over the past 10 years, Spotless Water has grown from a start-up to an equity-backed industry disruptor. We now have 177 pure water filling stations across the country, are expanding the network and employ more than 50 people. With that, my role has changed significantly.

I started with a much more hands-on, operational approach. Now, I focus on the bigger picture and how we can continually grow, improve and capture the DIY market. Day to day, that means hiring top talent, developing a strategically minded senior leadership team and setting ambitious goals and KPIs across the business.

A big part of my role is fundraising, which means a lot of my time is spent in board meetings or talks with investors. We have raised nearly £20m through debt and equity to roll out our hardware and develop the technology, infrastructure and support services to become the UK’s leading pure water provider.

What was the inspiration behind your business?

I founded Spotless Water in 2016 after several years running my first business, Spotless Mobile, a mobile car-valeting company that services car club fleets owned by big vehicle hire companies such as Avis.

I quickly realised that one of the biggest barriers to scaling the business was accessing pure water. Pure water powers entire industries, including window cleaning, car detailing, solar panel maintenance and many others. It is essential to giving customers a streak-free clean, as tap water contains substances that leave marks when the water dries.

But accessing pure water has historically been difficult, especially if you had to produce it yourself, which you mostly did in those days. Spotless Mobile had to make its own pure water from van-based systems. It was slow, prone to breakdowns and labour-intensive, all of which affected our technicians’ ability to complete full shifts, and the process wasted huge amounts of water. I knew that many other professionals faced the same challenges, and I wanted to find a better way.

That was how it started. Spotless Water’s self-service pure water stations apply advanced filtration processes to bring industrial-grade water to everyday cleaning professionals at the click of a button. Our first station was a huge success. Customer demand drove national expansion, and we have gone on to transform the industry, creating a whole new market category.

What will the new investment be used for?

In June 2026 we secured £6.35m in a round led by YFM Equity Partners, with Blackfinch and Connection Capital already among our backers. The funding will accelerate the roll-out of new stations, pay for upgrades across the existing network and deepen our national partnerships with Morrisons, Motor Fuel Group and Park Garage Group, including a trial of our pure water in Park Garage Group’s jet wash bays. Our target is 1,200 stations by 2029.

Who do you admire?

I find my inspiration in entrepreneurs who have gone out and created new categories, not just once, but time and time again.

Two UK founders spring to mind: Richard Branson and James Dyson. Both are notorious sector disruptors who have had the vision and foresight to create technologies and products that totally change the game.

On top of that, the sheer determination, risk appetite and relentless pursuit of innovation that come with this kind of legacy are really admirable and show what is possible with entrepreneurialism.

Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?

I am exceptionally proud of what the team has achieved in our first decade, but if I had the time again, I would push us to think bigger, sooner.

We were thinking big to begin with, but perhaps not big enough. In the UK, we seem to approach entrepreneurialism more nervously than in places like the USA. Here, failure is frowned upon, and I think this has created a culture where we are apprehensive about thinking big or taking the plunge at first.

Take our national concession partnerships, for example. Last year, we entered a landmark partnership with Morrisons to install our 24/7 self-service pure water stations across the supermarket’s nationwide estate, including sites in Shrewsbury, Lichfield, Woking and others.

This partnership model, which we have now rolled out more widely, has been a massive growth vehicle, allowing us to deploy more stations in places that are highly convenient for our customers. I sometimes think about where we could be today if we had pursued it earlier. But as a new category creator, we needed to prove the demand with independents first before pitching to the nationals with a proven business model.

What defines your way of doing business?

There are two things. The first is a relentless focus on customer convenience. Our customer-first mindset drives every decision we make, from who we partner with to where we deploy new stations and how we can improve the overall experience.

The second is reliability. Everything we do is focused on delivering a dependable experience, so our customers know that when they turn up at one of our stations, they can fill up without hassle.

At the end of the day, we want our company to help others do their work reliably and to give them the tools to scale their businesses. Often, it is about working backwards from there.

What advice would you give to someone starting out?

Do not take no for an answer.

Starting your own business is really difficult, and it is worth being honest about that with people starting out, especially if you are trying to do things differently. You will naturally face resistance and you will need to be relentless to succeed.

But if you can stand by your vision and fill a genuine gap in the market, keep pushing through, even if others doubt you.

It is also very important to build a strong network of mentors. Whether that is by bringing on highly experienced non-executive directors or seeking out personal mentors, I would recommend doing it as early as possible in your entrepreneurial journey.

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