68. Monk: delivering cold water wellness with the first smart ice bath

Founder: Laura Fullerton
Year founded: 2021
Website: discovermonk.com

Laura Fullerton was among 6,000 members of a private Facebook group teaching you how to turn your chest freezer into a makeshift ice bath. Before breaking out the toolkit, Laura decided there had to be a simpler, and safer, way to access at-home cold water therapy. One that hopefully didn’t involve an engineering degree and risk of electrocution. 

Fullerton thought to herself, “if there’s this many people willing to risk electrocuting themselves because nothing’s meeting their needs, there’s something bigger here!”. That something bigger is Monk. 

Monk is the world’s first smart ice bath. The Monk app connects to your wearable tech and acts as your personal cold water coach. It safely guides you through your cold immersion journey, making sure you’re getting the safest, most effective cold water experience possible. 

Our judges loved Monk’s smart technology. The connected app provides you with data showing how much of a positive impact that cold water therapy is having on your health, from sleep quality to mental wellbeing.

Monk now boasts the ex-CEO of Brewdog James Watt as an investor, as well as former world heavyweight boxing champ and OBE Anthony Joshua. Monk has also secured an upcoming partnership with luxury chain Fairmont Hotels, targeting high-performance individuals like athletes and executives, and any individuals who want to hack their health. 

Fullerton believes that soon you’re more likely to reinvigorate yourself with a cold plunge over a caffeine dump. A brighter, healthier (and admittedly chillier) future where we’re going to be more excited to head to a ‘plunge party’ than prop up the bar.

With as many as 28% of young adults not drinking Gen Z is going teetotal, so the cold-water revolution might be coming sooner than you think! If you’ve been cold-dip curious, now’s the time to jump in, the water’s fine! Oh, and it’s self-cleaning, too.