Canadian B Corp Certified home and sustainable lifestyle marketplace Goodee closed a $1.5 million Series 2 seed round of financing led by BDC Capital.

WHO: Founded in June 2019 by award-winning designers and curators Byron and Dexter Peart, Goodee is a pioneering platform championing “good design, good people, and good purpose.” Aligning its mission to the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals, Goodee exists first and foremost as a tech-oriented, market-based solution to some of the most pressing challenges facing people and the planet, including poverty reduction, gender equality, and climate change mitigation.

The Goodee beauty assortment consists of Haeckels, Frama, Nala, Bear, Austin Austin, Circumference NYC, Sitti, Takada, Costa Brazil, Saya, and Nature of Things.

WHY: Goodee will use the fresh capital to increase its influence, with plans to further build out its digital and merchandising teams, continue launching new ethical brand partners and Goodee-branded products, and enhance its customer reach across US markets, which already account for over 80% of the company’s turnover.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS: “In just 18 months, we’ve watched Goodee thrive through launch as a start-up to tremendous growth today,” said Michelle Scarborough, Managing Partner at BDC Capital. “This is exactly the kind of tech-enabled partner BDC Capital looks to invest in. We are excited to deepen our partnership with Goodee as they continue to build and scale the platform.”

“In our lives and our careers, Dexter and I felt more and more frustrated by a broken retail system built upon seasonality and markdowns and short-sighted values of throw-away and trend-dependent culture. We were inspired to break the status quo and felt motivated to provide an aspirational and educational design destination for an engaged community of conscious consumers and impact-minded makers from around the globe to collectively call home,” said co-founder Byron Peart.

“At a time of such unprecedented change, Goodee is perfectly positioned as the leading e-commerce platform for sustainable home design—empowering diverse, ethical makers and consumers to make a social and environmental impact by choosing less but better,” said co-founder Dexter Peart. “We are proud to have assembled a diverse group of strategic investors who strongly believe in the vision and impact of Goodee.”

DETAILS:

• Goodee closed a $1.5 million Series 2 seed round of financing with a significant increased investment from BDC Capital who led the round, with follow-on pro-rata investments from the José Neves Family Fund, founder of Farfetch; Joe Mimran, founder of Club Monaco; Erol Uzumeri, co-founder of Searchlight Capital; alongside initial Seed Series 1 lead investor and impact fund, Good & Well, and new investor, impact fund Marigold Capital.
• This additional round brings Goodee’s total funding to date to $3.5 million USD.
• Despite the COVID-19 crisis, Goodee reports a second consecutive quarter of exponential growth, with sales increasing over 50% during the lockdown quarter.
• Goodee, whose core customers are women aged 24 to 44, attributes this consistent traction and momentum to a heightened interest in supporting sustainability-driven brands and black-owned businesses, along with an increased demand for online home décor items spurred by a new, homebound reality.