Shaving company closes £3.5m investment round

by | Aug 8, 2017

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Cornerstone

 

Shaving company Cornerstone, which provides quality British skin care products and German engineered razors to 140,000 customers around the UK via an online subscription service, has just secured a further £3.5m investment.

It has just closed a £3.5m investment round, taking its total raised since launch in 2014 to £8m. The round was led by UK growth investor Calculus Capital and adds to Cornerstone’s list of angel investors which already includes Quidco CEO Andy Oldham, ex-Jack Wills Chairman Will Hobhouse, Charles Tyrwhitt Chairman Nick Wheeler and ex-President of Levi Jeans Joe Middleton.

 
 

The company also announced that e-commerce veteran William Reeve (previously on the boards of Graze, Lovefilm, Zoopla & Paddy Power) is joining the Cornerstone as an adviser.

Cornerstone was born out of entrepreneur Oliver Bridge’s personal frustrations with the discomfort and expensive nature of wet shaving. He launched the company in June 2014 with £10,000 of his own savings and a £5,000 start-up loan.

The male grooming industry is worth $6.7 billion in Europe and globally is predicted to expand at a CAGR of 8.4% up until 2024. Cornerstone intends to broaden its range of products across the remainder of 2017, moving into new toiletries categories such as shampoo and dental care.

 
 

Bridge described the expansion as “…all-out assault on the men’s aisle at Boots – we don’t think men should have to shop for, or even think about shopping for toiletries – we’re here to fix that.”

Roshan Puri, of Calculus Capital, commented: “As a consumer brand that offers customers quality, value and convenience, Cornerstone is disrupting the men’s shaving and toiletries market in the UK. We have been extremely impressed with the company’s almost obsessive focus on ‘the customer’ and industry leading capabilities in customer acquisition and management. A high quality management team is a key part of our investment criteria. Oliver and the senior team at Cornerstone have shown their ability to deliver significant business growth and build a well-run organisation, capable of using third party investment to deliver strong returns.”

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