ettitude
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Investors cozy up to LA-based ettitude’s bamboo bedding and sleep wear with $1.6 million
Ettitude, the Los Angeles-based, direct-to-consumer startup making sustainable bedding and sleepwear from bamboo fibers, has raised a sustainably sized round that should keep the company going even in the face of an economic recession.
Co-founded by the Melbourne, Australia native Phoebe Yu and serial entrepreneur Kat Dey, ettitude sells high-end bamboo bedding made using a process she first heard about in her old job working as an exporter helping chain stores source textiles in China.
Sourced from a factory in Zhejiang, China, near Shanghai, the bamboo textiles are made using non-toxic solvents and a closed-loop system that reuses water for the process, according to Yu.
Yu started selling the cleanBamboo-branded bedding under the ettitude label in Melbourne first, but when she saw the orders begin to pick up from the U.S. she relocated and took her company with her.
Upon arrival, Yu realized she’d need a strong co-founder with experience in branding to help her navigate the massive market in the U.S. So Yu turned to AngelList, which is where she found Dey.
A serial entrepreneur with a background in retail, whose first company TryTheWorld was acquired by EarthBox in 2017, Dey was looking for her next project.
“Phoebe sent me a sample and I had the best night of sleep in my life,” Dey said. From then on the two co-founders began the long, hard slog of marketing their business.
Sales are growing, according to the two women, and the company’s chances have certainly been improved by the capital infusion from Drumbeat Ventures and TA Ventures, a European female-founded fund focusing on technology innovation.
The $1.6 million financing will be used to boost sales and marketing as the company expands beyond bedding — with an average price of $178 for a queen-sized sheet set — and into sleepwear and other categories.
“Phoebe, Kat and their brand, ettitude, are as genuine a combination of passion, purpose, and proprietary product that I’ve seen in the marketplace in my 20 years,” said Drumbeat Ventures founder, Adam Burgoon, in a statement. “They are perfectly positioned to bring their mission of sustainability and comfort to a broader audience.”
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Ettitude targets eco-conscious shoppers with its organic bedding
Ettitude, recently graduated from the ERA accelerator, is looking to ride the growing wave of e-commerce by offering eco-friendly sheets.
The company offers bamboo lyocell sheets and pajamas, which feel like a hybrid between silk and cotton, and stay cool longer than cotton or other fabrics.
Bamboo lyocell fabric is essentially organic fabric made from weaving together tiny fibers of organic bamboo material or pulp. Ettitude says that the fiber yield per acre from bamboo is about 10 times higher than cotton and requires less than 10 percent of the water to grow.
I tried out the Ettitude sheets and found that they were indeed soft and kept me cool in the hot NYC summer, but they also require slightly more attentive laundering. Ettitude sheets should be washed in cold water and separately (or in a laundry bag), which is a slight departure from throwing your sheets in with the regular wash.
Still, the company is growing. Ettitude, a predominantly bootstrapped company, first launched in Australia and gained traction via ecommerce channels. Late this summer, the company launched in the U.S. and has sold “tens of thousands” of units, with a 20 percent month over month growth rate.
Ettitude has taken some investment from friends and family, and also received $100,000 in investment from Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator .
While the consumer side of the business seems to be growing, Ettitude is also receiving inbound requests from enterprise brands such as airlines to get involved with the brand. Qantas, the largest airline in Australia, has started selling Ettitude in its online portal to frequent fliers.
Ettitude Queen set sheets cost $178.
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