Love x Money Ventures has invested in lubricated tampon brand Marlow, bringing its total funding to-date to $1.9 million.
Love x Money Ventures founders Emily Ward and Jess Hunichen
Courtesy of Love x Money Ventures
Love x Money Ventures (formerly known as Shine Ventures) is an early-stage investment fund founded by the cofounders of Shine Talent Group, an influencer management agency, Jess Hunichen and Emily Ward. In February, the firm also invested in intimate care brand Minthub.
Marlow is a period care brand founded by Nadia Ladak, Simone Godbout, Harit Sohal and Kiara Botha, best known for its lubricated tampon for easier, pain-free insertion — a new modality thought to be beneficial for first-time tampon users, post-pregnancy and pre-menopause.
Marlow founders Simone Godbout, Kiara Botha, Nadia Ladak and Harit Sohal.
Hunichen first came across the brand on social media and was impressed by the community it had built, leading her to send a cold Instagram DM to the team.
“We happened to already be raising a funding round at that time…and it seemed like such a good fit,” Ladak said.
Hunichen added: “Being able to see and recognize what kind of community a brand has already built through social, that is the kind of stuff that gets me excited.”
With this, the Love x Money Ventures did not disclose details of the deal but shared it has invested both capital and influencer marketing consulting services.
“We’ll be working with the Marlow team on their influencer strategy and deployment, which is our sweet spot with Shine Talent Group,” Hunichen said, adding the group has talent that “would naturally be interested in a product like this.” “When I see brands like Marlow, I’m like, ‘It’s just the easiest influencer campaign.’ You can just visualize how it would all come to life.”
Hunichen added that they will be looking at different ways to get their influencers involved with Marlow, including as possible future investors — particularly given that the brand’s mission resonates with those who have struggled with tampon insertion before.
“We had discovered this problem around tampon insertion pain and wanted to make it easier,” Ladak said. “I’d gone to the gynecologist to see if there were any solutions out there that we hadn’t considered, and the gynecologist actually said to spit on the tampon. We couldn’t believe that was the only solution out there.”
Marlow tampons
Klaudia Liboska
This ultimately led to the creation of Marlow’s hero lubricated tampon, which has now been on the market for more than two years. The tampons tap into the growing category of tween-specific period care. With that in mind, Ladak said Marlow’s target customer is first-time menstruators and Gen Zers but she has seen adoption from several other cohorts who could benefit from the lubrication.
The brand has also since launched organic pads and is available in more than 200 retailers, including Whole Foods. Ladak also shared that “Amazon has been exploding,” as more consumers are seeking alternatives after recent studies showed many major brands contained toxins and metals.
“Our overall vision is to make Marlow a household name when it comes to women’s health and change the entire norm of period care to be a lubricated tampon,” she said.
