Company: Nudea
Website: https://www.nudea.com/
Business: A fit-centric, sustainable underwear brand offering contemporary and sophisticated essentials.
About Priya and Nudea
Launched in 2019, Nudea is a digital-first business disrupting the bra shopping experience from measurement to try on. 80% of women wear the wrong bra size because 75% haven’t been fitted in over three years. Hence the brand created its custom fitting tools including the trademarked Fit Tape for accurate self-measurement at home. Since launch, Nudea has helped over 15,000 bra wearers find their perfect fit.
Nudea founder, Priya Downes was uninspired by the uncomfortable and old-fashioned bras that she found in her underwear drawer, so envisioned her own brand built around modern women and their lifestyles. With no overhyped technology, no simplifying design and no shortcuts, Nudea brings together the best in sustainability, modern fabric production techniques to engineer better underwear.
Prior to founding Nudea, Priya worked at luxury brands including Burberry and Chanel, as well as at The World Bank driving the sustainability agenda within the fashion industry, which she is now bringing to Nudea. Priya holds an MBA from INSEAD and is passionate about entrepreneurship and driving female leadership.
As a brand with a vision to disrupt bra shopping by bringing the whole process to people’s homes, Nudea was already well-placed for growth when the pandemic hit. Business growth was exponential during 2020/2021 lockdowns due to the core mission being on the pulse of what women needed at that time – a way to safely get fitted and purchase a product that serviced the need for comfort in the new WFH culture. Proving this point, sales of Nudea’s Fit Tape increased by 500% and to-date 15,000 women have been fitted using Nudea’s tools. Following the start of lockdown, Nudea launched a free virtual bra fitting service and added reusable face masks to the range.
In early 2021, Nudea secured a second round of capital to support future growth including moving into wholesale as well as strengthening the brand’s sustainability credentials. The company has raised over £1m in equity funding and the lead investor is Cornerstone, a leading seed fund which invests in black and diverse founders in the UK.
In September 2021 Nudea strengthened its ‘CareMore’ commitment by becoming a carbon-neutral company. Nudea’s sustainability commitment includes easy-to-use fitting tools to deliver on fit for conscious, responsible shopping, premium recycled fabric and yarns that last longer, thoughtfully-designed styles made in partnership with responsible suppliers who pay fair living wages, produced in a GOTS and SLCP fully-certified factory in Portugal and delivered in recycled and recyclable packaging. Nudea also pledges 1% of annual revenue to charity and in 2021 has donated to Clean Water charity Splash and Breast Cancer Charity CoppaFeel.
