Apr 5, 2017

London DaaS firm WhenFresh closes £3m Series A Consumer tech firm Friction Free Shaving has raised £1.25m in Series A funding from Athene Capital LLP. This round follows on from the startup’s previous £150,000 equity crowdfunding raise on Seedrs with backing from business Angels. The company, based in the West Midlands, operates a subscription service and seeks to make quality female shaving products available to consumers. Alongside the funding, Friction Free Shaving , has also scored a partnership with Northern & Shell, the media publishing company, which owns the likes of OK! Magazine. Briar Keen, co-founder of Friction Free Shaving, commented on the news: “We are thrilled about this deal and have already seen some really encouraging results from our early activities with the Northern & Shell media team. “With the ongoing support from Northern & Shell and Athene Capital we believe this investment will allow us to treble our subscriber numbers by the end of the year, and fulfil our mission to empower as many women as possible to get a fair deal when it comes to shaving,” he added. The startup, which launched its first set of products 18 months ago, claims to have more than 8,000 active monthly subscribers. Lloyd Thomas, managing partner of Athene Capital, said: “The management team at Friction Free Shaving have identified a huge and untapped opportunity in the market of women’s shaving subscriptions. We are very confident in their ability to drive rapid growth and are excited to be backing them.” Friction Free Shaving’s raise comes after other startups in the subscription and consumer tech space announced investments rounds in the past few months. In February, flower subscription service Bloom & Wild announced the closure of a £3.75m Series B  and food recipe kit service Gousto secured an additional £10m in November last year. Enter your email address to receive updates straight to your inbox * indicates required