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Designer logo ice cubes are on their way

January 19, 2025
Home > Designer logo ice cubes are on their way

Icebow’s mass-produced Joice Cubes can be imprinted with detailed images containing optical reflection properties that make them shine in the dark.

Elad Mor, an Israeli mechanical engineer specializing in structural optic coatings, took a refreshment break while experimenting with transferring light onto surfaces without using pigments or dyes.

When he raised the chilled drink to his lips, he had a eureka moment.

Ice cubes come very close to the drinker’s eyes – making them a perfect promotional medium if one could embed a logo or image in the cubes without any dye that would spoil the drink.

Mor set about inventing an automated way to do that, co-founding a company called Icebow that we wrote about in 2017.

But Mor’s red-hot idea ended up frozen for several years as the company faced a choice of folding or pivoting.

 

The pivot

“Our plan back in 2017 was to build ice-making modules to be integrated into commercial ice machines that are sold to restaurants, bars and event venues. However, it turned out that the reliance on the third-party ice machine makers was a mistake as they were too slow, too concerned and too rigid to take on the risks associated with implementing such a new technology,” Mor tells ISRAEL21c.

“At this point, in 2019, we also almost ran out of money. Most companies would close their operations at this point and their teams would move on. But we decided that our vision to create an unforgettable drink and brand experience was still very compelling and that we have a unique technology to turn this into a reality.”

With an investment from a friend and from their own pockets, Mor and cofounder Sagi Katz decided to continue along their icy path.

They pivoted toward designing the world’s first industrial ice machine to produce premium branded cubes at scale.

 

New demand for branded cubes

The cofounders spent five years designing and building their “Joice” machine (a mashup of “joy” and “ice”), building a strong patent portfolio, and studying the market.

They discovered a new niche market for high-quality, big, clear ice cubes sold mainly to high-end bars and restaurants. And more recently, they discovered a growing demand for custom-designed and branded ice cubes for corporate events and luxury parties.
This feat is currently achieved through a complex process involving manual labor that takes several days and includes the formation of the ice blocks, bandsaws to cut them into ice cubes and custom stampers or carvings to add the logos.

“And the results are not great, as the logos are crude-looking and carved on the surface of the ice cubes, causing them to melt fast,” says Katz.

Enter Icebow with a better solution for specialty ice producers seeking to automate and improve results and dramatically expand production without hiring more workers.
Mor explains that automating the production of logo ice cubes has so far been an impossible task mainly due to technical limitations.

“Our main challenge was how to harvest ice from a metal plate evaporator without heating its surface and melting the logos. We invented and patented a novel harvesting technology that does not involve heat and is at the core of our Joice machines.”

Icebow also created a more durable logo format “imprinted” at the center of the cube away from the liquid, for a longer-lasting drink experience.

Joice Cubes can be produced in the thousands per day. They can be imprinted with detailed, higher resolution and complex logos containing optical reflection properties that make them shine in darker drinks and dimmer lighting.

“Now that we have a full-scale working beta machine, a solid patent portfolio and global launch partners lined up, we are ready to talk to investors and bring our Joice machines and Joice Cubes to market,” says Katz.

“We’ve already signed memorandums of understanding with four specialty ice producers globally,” he adds. “We estimate that this is a $1 billion market opportunity that we can directly serve with a unique, high-margin business model that captures the upside potential of selling Joice Cubes using our ice machines.”


Based on a kibbutz

Icebow moved to Kibbutz Hulda in 2018. Mor is the CEO and the chief engineer; Katz handles the business and financial side of things. Other aspects are outsourced.
Katz says the current war has not slowed down Icebow.

“We are fortunate to have specialty ice-production partners who genuinely believe and trust us and are not deterred. Interestingly enough, they all came on board during the first stages of the war. It seems that what we offer is so unique and one-of-a-kind that they are looking for access to our Joice machines regardless of the war,” he explains.

Joice machines, he notes, are the world’s first industrial ice machines that produce custom-designed logo ice cubes automatically and at scale.

“This capability is especially important for clients who want to wow their event guests and create a more intimate drink experience,” Katz says.
Will Icebow create a de-facto luxury ice-cube standard to support brand experience activities, weddings and parties? Icebow is now in the process of raising funds to execute this mission.

Source article: Israel21C