Eve Sleep

In the 2010s, mattress company startups such as Eve began to emerge with a new business model to meet consumer and market demands.[8][9][10]

These new companies had a limited selection of products[10] made from a few key components[9] at a fraction of the high street costs.[11] They also aimed to simplify the decision process for customers, offering generous trial periods, quick delivery and social media marketing.[9]

Jas Bagniewski was already in the mattress industry, along with James Fryer. They sold over $2 million worth of mattresses in one day on a Groupon flash sale in 2011.The company went on to sell 75,000 mattresses online in 18 countries.[12] The idea for Eve grew from their experience and through years of product testing, customer feedback and reviews.[12]

Eve Sleep was founded in October 2014[13][14][11] in London by:

• Jas Bagniewski (ex-senior management of Groupon UK and ex-head of Zalando UK)
• James Fryer (previously of Zen Bedrooms)
• Kuba Wieczorek (ex director at Channel 4 Creative and head of sports marketing at Channel 4)
• Joe Moore (formerly at Deloitte)
• Felix Lobkowicz (ex-VP Rocket Internet and ex-head of Zalando UK)
• Abid Ismail (ex-CEO of Axelos, part of Capita Plc, and ex-assistant director at Ernst and Young M&A).[14][13]

The company was officially launched in December 2014.

In 2015, the company closed a seed-round of funding worth £600,000.[4] Investors included FJ Labs (Viagogo and Zesty), DN Capital (Shazam) and Octopus Ventures.[4][5][15] In 2018, the company looked to raise a further 15 million pounds.[16]

Octopus Ventures and DN Capital invested for a second time in a Series A round to the value of £2.5 million in October 2015.[11][17] And in July 2016, Eve Sleep secured £6.9m in Series B funding.[18] This round included funding from Channel 4, the British public-service television broadcaster, via its Commercial Growth Fund.[19][20][17] Channel 4 offers companies not currently advertising on television in the UK, the opportunity to launch a TV ad campaign on Channel 4, by exchanging equity stakes or striking revenue share arrangements.[19][20]

The company sold more than 11,000 mattresses in its first year with a turnover of more than £3.5 million, averaging monthly growth of 25%.[5]

By 2017, the revenue had increased to £27 million, but the operating losses also increased to £19 million in the same period, with over half the revenue spent on marketing. The founding CEO, Jas Bagniewski, was asked to step down in July 2018 due to the poor financial performance,[21] and was replaced in September 2018 by James Sturrock, the former CEO of Moonpig. At the time Bagniewski was asked to stand down, the company share price was 67p per share. In the first 6 months under new management, the share price dropped to 10p per share. In September 2018, the new CEO said that the company needed an injection of capital, and proposed a share placing to achieve it.[21]