British underwear brand Stripe & Stare secures 2.5 million pounds in fresh funding

Women’s underwear brand Stripe & Stare has secured 2.5 million pounds in fresh funding from BGF and a consortium of investors.

The British brand said it would use the investment to grow its workforce and increase capacity at its Yelverton headquarters in Devon to drive UK and international sales.

Stripe & Stare was founded in 2017 by Katie Lopes and Nicola Piercy, who were looking to create comfortable and sustainable knickers.

The brand sells underwear, loungewear and sleepwear using Modal, a bio-based fabric made from beechwood trees.

Last year, Stripe & Stare launched what it called the world’s first 100 percent biodegradable lace underwear collection.

Global reach

“The last 12 months has exceeded all expectations for the business,” said co-founder Nicola Piercy in a release.

“We’ve seen consistently strong organic growth and repeat purchase rates. We’ve created a product that women absolutely love and as a result we’ve received global recognition for our product range.”

She said the investment and partnership with BGF would provide the support the company needs to scale.

“With a focus on long-term, minority investment and experience of building successful e-commerce businesses, it was clear [BGF] were the right partners to take us to the next stage of growth,” she said.

Stripe & Stare grew its revenue by 100 percent a year for the last three years, driven by consumers’ shift to shopping online for more environmentally friendly fashion options.

The brand has its own webstore and is also stocked in a number of high-end retailers including Selfridges and Bloomingdales.

Daniel Tapson, an investor at BGF, said: “Stripe & Stare represents an exciting opportunity to back a fast growth brand which has placed sustainability right at the heart of its business.

“We have been impressed by the vision and values of Nicola and Katie, two inspirational female founders, who are determined to shake up the fashion industry and are passionate about demonstrating that there is no trade-off between profit and purpose.

“We look forward to bringing our sector experience to the table in order to support the growth of the brand.”