Women’s Quirky, Sexy Lingerie With a Soul Behind it
August 9, 2014 by admin
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Social Business Spotlight: A Look at Entrepreneurs With Heart
Business: Naja, @naja
Who: Catalina Girald, Naja founder and CEO
What: A socially-conscious luxury lingerie brand that trains and employs single mothers in Colombia to sew its designs. Through Naja’s Underwear for Hope program and a partnership with the Golondrinas Foundation, Naja helps train and employ under-privileged women.
When: May 2013
Where: San Francisco, CA, and Medellín, Colombia
How: Colombian-born Catalina Girald spent 18 months backpacking through the most remote parts of South America, and through her travels she was inspired to launch a company that would benefit the women she met in these underprivileged areas, as well as all women around the world.
“We’re couture for the everyday person. Our whole vision is geared toward helping women,” says Girald.
The brand’s underwear and bra designs, which range from $12 to $15, and $45 to $80 respectively, can be described as quirky, sexy and very vibrant.
“We’re characterized by bright prints, [and our styles are] much more like runway fashion,” Girald says. “We’re very detail-oriented.”
Naja gives back a percentage of every purchase to the Golondrinas Foundation in support of its entrepreneurial sewing program – from which the startup has hired employees. Naja also directly employs single mothers and heads of households (through their Underwear for Hope program) to craft the lingerie wash bags in which all bras are packaged. With every bra purchase, Girald says consumers are helping to provide employment for these and hopefully more women.
“Our goal and our vision is to employ women in the U.S. as well, and it’s totally feasible,” Girald says. “This is what’s really neat.”
The startup just recently closed a successful Kickstarter campaign from which it raised $25,699, beating its goal of $20,000. Naja has also raised about $800,000 in venture funding from backers such as Base Ventures founder and managing director Erik Moore (an early investor in Zappos), Starbucks founder Howard Schultz’s firm Maveron Ventures and Brand Foundry Ventures, among others.
Moment in time: Naja was recently invited to present at premier trade lingerie show Mode City Paris and to do a runway show.
“There are a lot of new ecommerce companies,” Girald says, adding that “to be recognized in the fashion community [this] early on is pretty worthwhile.”
She says what sets Naja apart is that “we’re creating a brand with an ethos and soul behind it.”
Most valuable advice: The former attorney and longtime entrepreneur recalls initial meetings with investors where they gave a lot of push back about Naja giving back a portion of its profits. But she wouldn’t drop the social element.
The social aspect “gives so much more value to your company and what you’re doing,” Girald says. “Insist no matter what your investors say, because it will ultimately help the brand.”
Follow Natalia Angulo on Twitter @natisangulorico.
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Deals of the Day: Real Estate, Lingerie and Pills
August 9, 2014 by admin
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Deals of the Day is your one-stop-shop for the morning’s biggest news from the finance beat, including MA, IPOs, banks, hedge funds and private equity. And occasionally, models. Here’s what’s happening today:
Mergers Acquisitions
Bigger in America. Wanda Group announced Friday that it had won a bid for a plot of land in Los Angeles, where it will spend $1.2 billion building a new mixed-use development. [WSJ]
Gemalto gets data-protection firm. Digital security company Gemalto NV is to buy SafeNet for $890 million, in a move that broadens the European company’s data protection operations and expands its customer base to some of the largest U.S. companies. [WSJ]
Dealpolitik. Did Valeant make a strategic error in partnering with Bill Ackman for its Allergan bid? [WSJ]
Breaking up. Buyout firm Carlyle Group LP is preparing to break up specialty chemical company PQ Corp, after efforts to sell the company in its entirety for as much as $3 billion were not successful. [Reuters]
Lingerie sale. The British private equity firm 3i Group , which owns a majority stake in lingerie chain Agent Provocateur, has hired Goldman Sachs to run a potential sale of the chain. [NYT]
MHP on the block. Maximum Human Performance, backed by growth equity firm Star Avenue Capital, is on the auction block, said people familiar with the matter. The company could fetch up to $225 million in a sale. [WSJ]
Another deal called off. The Hachette Book Group has abandoned plans to buy independent publisher Perseus Books Group, the companies said, deciding the deal was too complicated to complete. [WSJ]
Fast food bid. KKR Co. and CVC Capital Partners are working on a joint bid for Americana Group, a Kuwaiti company that operates fast food franchises in the Middle East and North Africa, according to people familiar with the situation. [WSJ]
American Banker sold. The owner of SourceMedia, the publisher of financial trade publications like American Banker and The Bond Buyer, said that it had sold the media company to Observer Capital, an investment firm. [NYT]
Longer than expected. Sysco Corp. said its merger with rival US Foods Inc. may not be completed this quarter as it had expected, but said that the review of the deal by the Federal Trade Commission is on track. [WSJ]
Peanut butter deal. Post Holdings Inc. agreed to acquire American Blanching Co. for $128 million, in a move that expands Post’s peanut-butter operations. [WSJ]
Which is it? The merger boom could be a sign that the economy is coming out of the doldrums. Or it could mean that corporate chieftains see it as the only way to grow. [NYT]
Incepted. With a record number of U.S. tax-inversion deals shrinking the pool of possible targets, the next crop of acquirers may pursue their former American peers that have already reincorporated abroad. [Bloomberg]
Buyside
Stake sold. Lululemon Athletica Inc. founder Dennis “Chip” Wilson has agreed to sell half his stake in the yoga-gear maker to the private-equity firm Advent International for $845 million in an attempt to resolve a dispute with the board. [WSJ]
Upstart rides high. Fan Bao, the head of the China Renaissance investment firm, has built a network of contacts with a focus on tech start-ups that will thrive in China’s “new economy.” [NYT]
Legal Regulatory
Buyout firms settle. Blackstone Group LP, KKR Co. and TPG agreed to pay a combined $325 million to settlea lawsuit that alleged they colluded to keep down prices of private-equity takeovers. [WSJ]
Seeking weapons. The Obama administration is exploring a range of possible weapons in the tax code to try to deter companies from relocating overseas for tax purposes through so-called inversion mergers. [WSJ]
“Vigorously contest.” Delphi Automotive LLP, a Troy, Mich.-based auto supplier that incorporated in the U.K. following its bankruptcy, plans to “vigorously contest” pressure from U.S. tax authorities to begin filing income taxes as if it were a domestic corporation. [WSJ]
Short-selling stoppage. Italian stock market regulator Consob has banned the short selling of shares in troubled Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena until August 11. [WSJ]