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- On Thursday, eco-friendly cleaning and home product maker Grove Collaborative announced it had acquired feminine care startup Sustain Natural for an undisclosed amount.
- Meika Hollender, Sustain Natural’s cofounder and CEO, will remain at the head of the Sustain brand under Grove Collaborative cofounder and CEO Stuart Landesberg.
- At the time of the deal, Sustain had 15 full-time employees, Hollender confirmed to Business Insider. She said they had to "move away" from a significant portion of the team, but would not confirm how many, if any, were joining her at Grove Collaborative.
- Hollender said Sustain Natural was fundraising when she was approached by Landesberg.
- The Vermont-based startup had raised a little over $10 million in three angel funding rounds since 2013. Its most recent round was in January, according to Pitchbook data.
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Grove Collaborative, an eco-friendly home products startup, isn’t letting its $212 million in venture funding go to waste.
On Thursday, the subscription service announced it was acquiring Vermont-based Sustain Natural, a sustainable line of feminine hygiene and sexual health products, for an undisclosed sum.
"It’s mind blowing that we got to sell our business to another B Corp that values sustainability," Sustain Natural cofounder and CEO Meika Hollender told Business Insider. A B Corp is a private certification given to for-profit companies focused on environmental sustainability. "I had mixed feelings about what an exit for Sustain would look like because we are so committed and mission driven," Hollender said.
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Hollender will remain on as head of the new Sustain Naturals brand under Grove Collaborative cofounder and CEO Stuart Landesberg. Landesberg told Business Insider that he had been a fan of Hollender’s for a while, and was pleased with how the partnership ultimately shook out given the similar missions and certifications of their businesses (both are certified B Corporations).
"Who you can exit to has changed and that was exciting," Hollender said of the deal. "They can sell our product to their customers because they are our customers and we were going to go after them anyway."
Landesberg’s company, which sells eco-friendly cleaning, home, and personal products as part of a subscription model, currently partners with Sustain Natural competitors Seventh Generation and Kora. Hollender’s father, Jeffrey, was the cofounder and CEO of Seventh Generation before starting Sustain Naturals in 2013 with Meika.
"Beyond the incredible assortment and products Sustain has, we look up to Meika and the mission of Sustain," Landesberg told Business Insider. "We benefit from having the experience that Meika brings in and actually getting stuff done in a way that’s pretty unusual."
Although Hollender will be joining Landesberg and team in Grove Collaborative’s San Francisco headquarters, she said Sustain Natural had to "move away" from a significant portion of its 15-person team, but would not confirm how many, if any, were joining her at Grove Collaborative. The brand will act be a subsidiary of Grove Collaborative moving forward, so primary functions like customer service and acquisition will fall to the startup’s 150-person team in Portland, Oregon.
Sustain Natural had raised a little over $10 million in angel funding since 2013, according to Pitchbook data. The company most recently granted a majority ownership to Combe, the creator of feminine care products like Vagisil, for $2.5 million in January.
"We were getting ready to fundraise and whenever you are there, acquirers and that sort come knocking," Hollender said. "It has always been on our mind, but we were not actively looking for an exit at this moment."
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Source: Business Insider – mhernbroth@businessinsider.com (Megan Hernbroth)