LoveRose Lingerie, the UK’s first lingerie brand developed specifically for post breast cancer surgery, has closed a funding round worth £300,000.
The Edinburgh-based start-up received £200,000 of this from a London-based investor who watched founder Caroline Kennedy Alexander’s appearance on Dragons’ Den.
The investment should help accelerate the brand’s growth, through developing brand awareness and expanding the product offering, which will include a new Essentials line due to be launched later this year.
LoveRose is also expanding its portfolio of business mentors and advisers to work on elevating the brand. Current advisers include Christian Maher, a former director of lingerie brand La Perla, and Yvonne Webb, a former national account manager at chocolate maker Cadbury.
Work is already under way to collaborate with relevant UK charities and organisations supporting cancer patients through their recovery.
Alexander said: “It’s fantastic news to have successfully closed a round of £300,000 investment - including this £200,000 commitment from our latest private investor - I am enormously excited about the potential for the LoveRose brand, which is about so much more than just bras – we put the emotional and psychological needs of our clients first.
“This is a market that’s shockingly under-served and so we’re helping to fill a massive and pressing unmet need.
“Unlike other post-operation underwear, which tends to be bland, matronly, and synthetic, our lingerie is designed with wire-free engineering and crafted luxuriously.”
LoveRose began when Alexander spotted a gap in the market for luxury lingerie while she was recovering from a double mastectomy and reconstruction.
LoveRose is named in memory of her sister, Rose, one of two of her sisters to have died from cancer. Alexander is one of six sisters, four of whom, including Caroline, have been diagnosed with breast cancer.
The LoveRose collection includes pocketed bras for women who wear prosthesis and hidden support hammocks to negate the need for underwires, while providing support for the breasts or prosthesis.
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