Startup takes on Victoria’s Secret and lingerie rivals; In the weeks that led up to Valentine’s Day, the headquarters of Adore Me, a lingerie startup, were frantic with activity, for good reason: Its daily sales in this period are more than 20 times the typical volume and nearly double those of Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
So significant is Valentine’s Day for this 3-year-old company, in fact, that a flat screen mounted on a wall in the company’s offices, in the heart of New York’s fashion district, counts down the days, hours and seconds until Feb. 14. There is more to the lingerie business than meets the eye. These garments are complex to design and size — bras have up to 20 components — and manufacturing them requires long lead times and large minimum orders. “If you want to start a brand with, say, 100 different styles, and you need to purchase 5,000 to 10,000 units of each, that’s a $10 million to $15 million investment before you’ve made any sales,” said Adore Me’s chief executive and co-founder, Morgan Hermand-Waiche. The big players. AdoreMe.com TV Commercial, 'More Sexy' AdoreMe.com TV Commercial, 'Redefining Lingerie' AdoreMe.com TV Commercial, 'The New Face of Lingerie'
Brayola Wants To Help Women Find The Perfect Bra. For many women, finding the right bra is a challenge.
Enter Israeli startup Brayola, a new site that aims to make it easier for women to find their next favorite bra. Brayola helps women find their perfect bra size and discover new bras that match the style she likes. Founder Orit Hashay explains that online stores fail to consider how important bras are to women, and that finding a bra is a highly personal experience. Additionally, an ill-fitting bra can cause serious discomfort, including back pain and other problems. The result is that most online shoppers buy a bra that they already own, since they are familiar with the brand. Brayola takes a different approach.
Brayola then looks at the bras a user has selected, and finds other users in the system who own the same bras with the same size. Brayola gives each user a custom set of virtual drawers filled with different styles and types of bras. Brayola has received seed funding from Roi Mor and Shahar Smirin. My personal bra shop. Adore Me - Personal Lingerie Showroom. Adore Me Raises $2.5 Million For Personalized Lingerie Showrooms. NYC-based Adore Me, yet another player in the subscription-based e-commerce business, has raised a second round of funding totaling $2.5 million.
Investors in the new round included Redhills Ventures, U.S. angels, plus Jaina Capital and Ventech Capital, two funds that specialize in Internet, information technology, communications technology, and green startups. Since its start in November 2011, Adore Me has generated monthly sales increases approaching 50% with its personalized “showrooms” of lingerie.
According to co-founder and CEO Morgan Hermand-Waiche, the site is now on track to generate between $1 million and $2 million in revenue this year, with 20% of total sales projected to be swimwear, a newly added category. In addition to Hermand-Waiche, Fabrice Grinda and Jose Marin are Adore Me’s other co-founders. All are serial entrepreneurs – Grinda previously founded Olx.com, an online classified site, and Marin is CEO of Latin America-focused DeRemate.com, for example.