“We’re tapping into a nerve of this idea of democratizing access to goodness,” Tina Sharkey, a cofounder and cochair of Brandless, told Business Insider about the company she cofounded.
Brandless is an online shop that offers competitively priced organic, natural, or healthy goods across categories including food, beauty, household goods, and baby.
The offerings are highly curated, meaning that in most cases there’s only one Brandless private-label option to choose from. That’s a stark contrast from the players that dominate the e-commerce space, like Amazon and Walmart, which offer an incredible number of options.
A year after launch, Brandless got a $240 million shot in the arm in a funding round led by Softbank, which valued the company at more than $500 million.
Sharkey says Brandless now sells close to 500 of its own-brand products on its website, and she predicts the company will end the year offering more than 800. It has also abandoned its earlier pricing structure that required it to sell everything in multiples of $3, but she says prices will remain accessible.
It donates a meal to Feeding America for every order, crossing the 3.5-million-meal mark in February. Sharkey recently stepped down as CEO of the company. In her new role as cochair, she will focus on “accelerating” Brandless’ mission and culture.
Will Brandless soon become the everything store 2.0?
“Everything is a big word,” Sharkey said. “But really, we live to better everything for everyone.”