I’m trying hard to stay awake amid news that another new-fangled mattress startup has secured funding. This time it’s the turn of Leesa, which has raised $9 million from private equity firm TitleCard Capital, giving the young company a post-money valuation of $45 million, and off the back of $30 million in projected sales in its first year.
It has also won some sort of competition, the prize of which is to hang out with and receive mentoring from Sir Richard Branson and a bunch of other rich people on Necker Island, the British tycoon’s private retreat. But I digress…
Launched formally this January in the U.S. but now also operating in its home market of the U.K., Leesa plays in an increasingly crowded space of vertically integrated mattress startups that design and manufacture their own mattresses and sell them direct online.
Like competitors, which include Casper and Tuft & Needle in the U.S., and newly-backed Eve in the U.K., Leesa is also talking up its mattress technology that combines multiple different types of foam to created a layered luxury mattress for a sleeping comfort that suits all.
The use of modern foam technology rather than a traditional spring-based design means that its wares can be compressed and vacuum-packed for cheaper and easier delivery. Perfect for a shop that operates entirely online.
And, like competitors, the startup offers a 100 night risk-free trial, which is just as well as you’d be buying one of its double mattresses for a cool £590 without ever laying on it otherwise.
In fact, given that the 100 night money-back guarantee seems to be a new standard, you could probably hack your sleep and never actually pay for a mattress all year round simply by ‘trying out’ each company’s mattress. Not that I’d recommend such a thing of course.