‘Everlane for sex toys’ comes into $500,000 of funding

Brooklyn sex startup Maude announced a $550,000 pre-seed round of funding Wednesday.

The company sells condoms, vibrators, lubricant and a travel pack with minimalist package design and gender-neutral marketing directly to consumers. It promises no skeevy advertising, positioning the products as just normal things you would buy.

“Brands are speaking to 18 to 24 year olds but leaving 81 million people on the table in the United States,” maude founder Eva Goicochea told Technical.ly in 2017, when we picked the company as one of the most interesting from the startup incubator’s 1776 demo night. “Ninety-eight percent of American adults have no brand loyalty.”

Proud to announce: “@getmaude, a modern sex essentials company, raises a round led by @XFactorVentures.” https://t.co/c46H4VP4TD

— Éva Goicochea (@eva_goicochea) February 28, 2018

Maude was founded by Goicochea and Dina Epstein in 2016. Goicochea had come from Everlane, the trendy online clothier that focuses on making basic clothes marketed to millennials with transparency on the price markups and labor they required.

XFactor Ventures led the round. XFactor is a venture fund that invests only in startups with at least one female founder.