SALT LAKE CITY, June 25th, 2020 — Utah-based Clarke Capital Partners with Silicon Slopes digital marketing agency, Ikonifi acquire Brandless.com.
Brandless.com is the community-driven, direct-to-consumer company that offered a curated assortment of high-quality, fairly priced products.
After this acquisition, the partnership intends to aggressively relaunch these products to order it online in the near future.
The company that shot to stardom in 2018 under the leadership of Tina Sharkey, shut its doors in February of this year, despite having achieved a $500 Million valuation and having received almost $300 Million from sources including SoftBank’s $100 Billion Vision Fund, NEA, Redpoint Ventures, GV, and Sherpa Capital.
Celebrity investors had also included the likes of Steph Curry, Randi Zuckerberg (Mark’s sister), and Jessica Seinfeld.
Brandless was re-imagining what it meant to be a “brand” in the 21st century by democratizing access to high-quality products at simple, fair prices, through cutting out the middleman and eliminating unnecessary markups, or the BrandTax. Despite an ultra-loyal following, Brandless ran into challenges with profitability and mounting troubles with a distressed SoftBank.
Under an improved capital structure, matched with responsible pricing models and the ongoing recruitment of a world-class team, Brandless 2.0 is now well-suited to carry on the brand that millions of Americans love. The assortment of 300+ products includes organic, non-GMO, all natural beauty, nutritional, and personal care products as well as household goods like non-toxic cleaners at fair prices.
Brandless also creates and curates original digital content ranging from recipes to life hacks and spotlights on people doing good in the world. “Brandless was built to address the serious challenges that exist in the consumer products market,” said Ryan Treft, newly appointed CEO of Brandless and partner at Ikonifi.
Clarke Capital Partners founder, James Clarke, stated, “We had been rooting for the Brandless team, having fallen in love with their ‘highest-quality’ product lines, but found ourselves deeply saddened to learn of the company’s closing. So when the opportunity was brought to us to join with Ikonifi’s Ryan Treft and Brady Hansen to acquire the assets, we wasted no time as we worked to ensure the future of what Brandless, and its ‘brand promise,’ will continue to be to its millions of loyal customers.”
Clarke will join the Brandless board as its Chairman, along with Clarke Capital’s, James Harrison, an early tech pioneer in the multi-billion dollar online insurance comparison marketplace.
In the near-term, Brandless will continue to offer the core products consumers have grown to love, along with line extensions of the most popular items at Brandless.com. But for now, the company will release a new Brandless Bundle every Monday leading up to the official relaunch. The themed packages will include a curated sample of products dedicated to categories like home cooking, home cleaning and infant care. These Bundles will be available to order online immediately.