Couple who sold their flat to start a business win £1 million investment

An online bedding business started just three years ago has won a £1 million investment to help it continue on its journey of growth and job creation.

Cheltenham-headquartered Bedfolk has secured the investment from True, described as a ‘leading retail and consumer specialist investment firm’.

It is more confirmation, if the husband and wife firm team needed it, that their decision to sell their London flat to raise start-up funds to create a premium direct-to-consumer (D2C) bedding brand was a good move.

‘After a period of rapid growth we sought out investors who could not only provide capital, but who could also unlock additional value as we enter our next phase of growth,’ said Nick James, managing director of Bedfolk.

In May 2021 co-founder of the business, Jo, was named in a list of top 200 female-powered businesses, put together by influential American investment bank J.P. Morgan.

Since starting the business in May 2018 it has seen 500 per cent growth a year and expects its staff team of 15 to grow to 30-plus to keep up with further growth it expects in 2021.

True has already helped grow businesses as diverse as men’s makeup brand War Paint and adult sexual wellness firm Maude.

Claire Cherry, investment principal at True, said: ‘Our sweet spot is finding businesses operating at the precipice of changes such as this, combined with great founding teams.

‘We believe we’ve found this in Bedfolk. Both our investment and innovation teams are looking forward to helping support Bedfolk through introductions we can make to our specialist retail and consumer network.’

In March 2019 the couple also won the Worth Capital Start-Up Series funding competition which led to the fund investing an initial £90,000 in the online bedding site, and returning subsequent investments.

By Andrew Merrell

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