UK online underwear brand announces seed fund raise

01 Mar '21

2 min read

Pic: Nudea

Fit-centric online underwear brand, Nudea, has announced a further £600,000 in seed funding, marking the start-up’s second successful round. The win also caps off the brand’s first full year of trading - with more months operating under COVID-19 restrictions than during pre-pandemic months. Nudea is a beautifully crafted and engineered to fit UK brand.

The investment comes as more customers seek accessible, size-inclusive, stylish options for bra-shopping online, an activity accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nudea’s mission to help bra-wearers find their true fit has attracted this new pool of investors to support the round, bringing the total raised since inception in late 2019 to £1.1 million. Backers include seed-stage firm Cornerstone Partners, and a group of angels led by investor James Eden, with both parties joining Nudea’s board, the company said in a media statement.

“Supporting Nudea’s female founders on their entrepreneurship journey is for us a highlight. Their industry expertise and vision for the future of the online underwear space is really inspiring. I’m excited to see them build out their team, sustain and scale the brand’s remarkable year-one success and make further impact in terms of accessibility in self-fitting,” Wilfred Fianko, co-founder of lead investor, Cornerstone Partners, said in a statement.

“Having the backing of Cornerstone Partners is an ideal fit for Nudea, particularly their commitment to underrepresented founders and inclusive businesses. As a female-led business whose central ethos is inclusivity, we are pleased to be aligning with a fund that complements our values. We have an absolutely stellar team of product innovators, most notably Sophie, our creative director, who has over 25 years’ experience leading design at renowned underwear brands. We’re really excited to have the backing and support of our investors to grow our business set to an exciting backdrop of a rapidly-changing retail environment,” Priya Downes, CEO and co-founder of Nudea said.

“We make it our business that bra-wearers feel supported and that means accountability when it comes to inclusivity, diversity, and accessibility. We’re particularly supportive of those going through bodily change, which is when bra-fitting is essential, but emotions are often high. We saw that the traditional retail environment wasn’t servicing these bra-wearers, so we developed our bespoke fit tape product, combined with our virtual fit and online sizing quiz. Those bra-wearers are now coming to Nudea, to the safe space that we’ve created,” Downes added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (GK)

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