MEN’S GROOMING BRAND OARS + ALPS CLOSES $1.3 MILLION ROUND OF FUNDING

Direct-to-consumer men’s natural grooming brand Oars + Alps has closed on a $1.3 million round of seed funding this month.

Lead investors in the seed round are Levy Family Partners and Breakout Capital, both of which have a creative and strategic focus on the e-commerce platform. Oars + Alps has experienced a 440 percent increase in annual sales since 2016 and on average, sales are doubling each month compared to the previous month. Oars + Alps’ customer base has grown 270 percent since the launch in November 2016.

“We knew we needed additional capital in 2017 to grow our business and to keep up with the demand for our product,” said Mia Saini Duchnowski, CEO and co-founder. “It was important for us to find strategic investors whose interests were aligned with ours in terms of growth, scope, time, and level of involvement. We were pleasantly surprised to be oversubscribed in less than a month, and this allowed us to make sure we had the right investors who were passionate about both the space and the brand.”

“The new funding is meant to accelerate growth and enable Oars + Alps to hire more staff, further develop our product suite, and to help accommodate increasing customer demand,” added Duchnowski. “We had a waitlist of more than 1,000 people for our top-selling solid face wash, so we are thrilled to be able to restock.”

As part of Oars + Alps’ next phase of growth, the brand will launch a non-profit partnership with SOS Outreach, an organization inspiring kids to make healthy and positive choices through outdoor activities, donating a portion of sales to their programming. The Oars + Alps team is also in the development process for new product launches and brand extensions as they look to own the dopp kit and be the convenient source for busy, active guys.