Harry submits paperwork for a new $139.9 million Financing

Harry's submits paperwork for a new $139.9 million Financing 

Harry's Razors has raised $155 million in Series E funding, valuing the company at $1.7 billion, a year after the Federal Trade Commission blocked the acquisition of Edgewell Personal Care by the direct-to-consumer razor startup. The company has now filed paperwork indicating that it has raised another cash tranche in the nine-figure range, despite the fact that it was raised months ago.

A new financing event, worth $139.9 million, was recently announced by Harry's, according to SEC filings. Shan-Lyn Ma, Lee Fixel, Mark Clouse, Helena Foulkes, Zoom's chief diversity officer Damian Hooper-Campbell, Harry's chief financial officer Jeff Lipkin, and Harry's chief counsel Jack Sarno were all listed in the same filing as the co-founders as well as other executives.

According to a spokesperson for Harry's, "at this time, we are not commenting on the matter."

With the new funding, the company's total funding since its inception in 2013 has increased to just over $791 million, according to data compiled by Crunchbase.

From acquisition target to brand incubator 

Harry's has been extremely active over the last year. Lum, a direct-to-consumer brand that specializes in all-over body odor control, was recently acquired by the company in an undisclosed transaction. It will launch its Headquarters hair care line in the first quarter of 2021. A TechCrunch interview conducted earlier this year revealed that Tehmina Haider, Harry's chief growth officer, has previously discussed the company's strategy of acquiring businesses that have "demonstrated product fit and consumer love."

Her company's goal in merging and acquiring other companies is to become a multi-category consumer packaged goods company and to establish a family of consumer packaged goods brands, she added. "We want to provide consumers with more and better products, and we're looking for brands that share our mission, are positioned in a way that allows us to be helpful, and are meeting unmet needs."

It is unclear whether this is a strategy to aid the late-stage DTC company in its eventual entry into the public markets, but the fact that the late-stage DTC company has precedent to draw upon is beneficial.

Direct-to-consumer companies such as Casper, which recently exited the public markets after a rocky debut, have educated investors and the general public about their limitations, whereas Warby Parker's direct listing has given hope to the same cohort.

For DTC companies seeking to go public, as our own Alex Wilhelm puts it, they either need to grow rapidly enough that losses become insignificant, resulting in share price appreciation and the ability to self-fund growth as needed, or they must figure out a way to reduce losses if the company's growth slows. In other words, it may not manifest itself in the form of SaaS growth, but rather as a rise in value.

Whether the company goes public or not, Harry's dream since birth has been to compete with established players in the global shave market, which is expected to reach $22.5 billion by 2030, according to estimates.