Sexual wellness brand Dame closed a $7 million Series A funding round led by Amboy Street Ventures, bringing the total capital raised by the business to $13 million.

WHO: Founded in 2014 by ​Alexandra Fine ​(a sexologist with a ​master’s in clinical psychology from Columbia University)​ and ​Janet Lieberman-Lu (an MIT-educated mechanical engineer), Dame is one of the brands leading the sexual wellness revolution as a women-powered resource for game-changing products for pleasure and supportive content. Through in-depth research, smart design, community input, and plenty of empathy, the Dame team has designed a line of exceptional tools to enhance sexual wellness for vulva-havers and their partners everywhere. Dame is not only revolutionizing toys for sex, but changing the way we experience, understand, and explore sexuality as part of holistic well-being. Since 2014, the team has opened doors that have long been closed to the sexuality industry, becoming a key player in the movement to bring pleasure to the forefront of wellness.

WHY: The capital will also fuel the company's focus on bringing even more accessible sexual wellness products into the mainstream. As Dame looks to the future, the company will also be investing in educational content with its Clinical Board, continuing to evolve its retail presence, and prioritizing customer retention to create a lasting community.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS: "Dame is bringing the sexual wellness category into the mainstream by plowing through industry-wide hurdles," says Carli Sapir, founding partner of Amboy Street Ventures. "Sexual pleasure and wellbeing is arguably the most stigmatized subset of our space and when that stigma is removed from sexual health and women's health; research, funding, and solutions will pour into this underserved area. Dame is unapologetically dismantling shame around sexual wellness and, in doing so, has found incredible product market fit.”

"The sexual wellness market is growing by the day, which is amazing to see given the resistance we've seen in past years," says Alexandra Fine, founder and CEO of Dame. "We are so proud to be a part of an encouraging intimacy movement, and our hope is that our newest product, Dip, will open that door for even more people to get in touch with themselves."

DETAILS:

• $7 million Series A funding round led by Amboy Street Ventures, with participation from Listen Ventures, Flybridge, Echo, and Forest Road Company. 
• The funding comes on the heels of launching several new products, settling with the NYC MTA to run ads, being part of Sephora's intimate care category launch, and introducing a clinical board. 
• Dame has driven 109% year-over-year e-commerce growth.
• The brand has doubled their wholesale business each year for the past two years, with 20% of Dame consumers hearing about the brand through its retail partners.
• Dame's biggest retail partners are Sephora, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Free People, Goop, and more.
• In February 2021, Dame raised $4 million in seed funding led by Listen, with participation from Chingona Ventures, The Community Fund, Her Capital, HP Reformation Ventures, IgniteXL Ventures, Joyance Partners, and angels such as Christiane Lemieux, Ashley Hartman, Kirstan Barnett, and Sonia Nagar.
• Prior to the seed round, the company relied on crowdfunding, raising less than $1.5 million. Their inaugural product, ​Eva​, became the most highly funded adult product in the history of online crowdfunding, raising $575,000 in just 45 days.