Since appearing on Shark Tank and securing an investment from Mark Cuban, sustainable beauty and personal care technology company Nohbo has expanded its global footprint and entered into the direct-to-consumer, hospitality, and consumer product goods industries.

WHO: Nohbo was founded by Benjamin Stern and is pioneering the research and development of podded personal care products. Nohbo is combating excess plastic bottle waste with single-use, dissolvable personal care drops for shampoos, conditioners, body washes, and shaving creams by encapsulating an innovative formulation of high-performance beauty products in a water-soluble membrane. Today the company sells its Drops directly on its website, and plans to offer subscription-based offerings later this year.

WHY: The capital, which will enable Nohbo to scale its manufacturing and produce 15 million units per month, comes at a pivotal time in the company’s growth trajectory.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS: “There is a disturbing global addiction and dependence on single use plastics. For personal care products alone, the US market consumes nearly 1,200 football stadiums worth of shampoo bottle waste annually,” said Ben Stern, Nohbo founder & CEO. “The mantra of reducing, reusing and recycling simply isn’t enough anymore. Nohbo replaces the need for plastics outright in a novel format that we are all familiar with; pods. We’re thrilled to partner with investors like Mark Cuban, Material Impact, and Safer Made who individually and collectively possess the insight, experience and wherewithal to grow our business, all while making a substantial impact in the process.”

“We are excited to join Nohbo’s mission to change the paradigm of how the hospitality industry and how individual consumers use personal care products in the 21st century,” said Adam Sharkawy, co-founder and Managing Partner of Material Impact. “Single use plastics are a menace to our environment. This is truly a material science innovation that is making a big impact on one of the largest culprits of plastic waste in our land and waterways.”

“Ben is global now, and that’s just the beginning,” said Mark Cuban in Nohbo’s Shark Tank Update that aired on ABC this past January. “Now that the product is ready for primetime, we are going to add consumer subscriptions. This literally could be a $100 million dollar enterprise over the next five to six years built around sustainability. There is nothing better than doing well by doing good!”

DETAILS:

• Nohbo has raised $3MM in a series seed funding round. Material Impact led the round, together with Safer Made and existing investor Mark Cuban’s Radical Investments.
• Nohbo’s unique product and major market opportunity piqued Mark Cuban’s interest on Shark Tank in February of 2016.
• Cuban will sit on Nohbo’s Board of Directors along with Adam Sharkawy.
• Nohbo has also entered into a number of B2B partnerships with some of the leading, Fortune 500 consumer product goods companies to create sustainable, plastic-free personal care lines of their product.
• Nohbo is also primed to serve the evolving needs of the hospitality industry. The company is working with one of the largest European hotel distributors to bring its product to the European market, where the EU’s recent vote to ban single-use plastic items has encouraged businesses to seek out more sustainable alternatives.