Cotopaxi, a direct-to-consumer, outdoor gear and apparel startup based in Salt Lake City, closed a $6.5 million Series A funding round led by Greycroft Partners, with additional investments from NEA, Forerunner Ventures and Lerer Hippeau Ventures.
Several prominent angel investors, including Jeff Kearl (Stance) and Josh James (Domo) joined in the round, adding to a growing list including Neil Blumenthal (Warby Parker), Dave Gilboa (Warby Parker), Andy Dunn (Bonobos) and Brian Lee (The Honest Company).
Cotopaxi claims to be the first company to incorporate as a Benefit Corporation from inception and raise venture funding from institutional investors. With a proven track record including revenue growth of 100 percent month-over-month, the company plans to use new funds to grow product offerings and launch new gear and apparel categories for customers.
The company also plans to use the funding to continue expanding their Questival events into additional cities across the United States. The Questival is a 24-hour adventure race that features exciting and quirky physical and social challenges, and benefits local charities while teams compete to win international trips, sportswear, cash, and other prizes. More than 6,000 people have participated in the three Questivals to date. With the launch Questival taking place in 2014, Cotopaxi plans on more than 20 Questivals in 2015.
Since launching 11 months ago, Cotopaxi has more than doubled its team of e-commerce experts and humanitarians who share a vision of providing high-quality gear to adventurers and urbanites everywhere.
“Greycroft Partners brings tremendous e-commerce experience to Cotopaxi and we can’t wait to work with them to expand on our unique offline-to-online customer acquisition events,” said Davis Smith, CEO and co-founder of Cotopaxi. “Today’s consumers not only demand high quality products, but they want transparency into how goods are made and they also value making a social impact with their purchases. Cotopaxi not only delivers quality performance gear and clothing, but our customers have a direct impact on making the world a better place.”
“With an incredible mission and variety of outdoor and lifestyle products along with strong charitable partners, Cotopaxi is a rapidly emerging brand in the quickly growing direct-to-consumer e-commerce sector,” said Ellie Wheeler, Principal at Greycroft Partners. “The quality of Cotopaxi products and the work that they do, all over the world, is second to none and we’re delighted to work with Davis and his team on expansion and growth in the coming months.”
Cotopaxi says its products are manufactured in sweatshop-free factories that offer sustainable, equitable wages to the employees and adhere to strict fair labor practices.
Cotopaxi is a next-generation, direct-to-consumer, outdoor gear and apparel company with a social focused mission of eradicating extreme poverty. Every piece of gear is tied to a humanitarian cause in the world’s poorest countries. Every pack provides between one and three weeks of education to a child, the sale of a water bottle provides six months of clean water, and all apparel is tied to health-related projects. Cotopaxi's aim is to help the world's poorest of the poor and to provide transparency by showing the exact impact of donations.
Greycroft Partners is a leading venture capital firm that manages $600 million and has made over 100 investments since inception.
