Okanagan Woman Angel Funds this month unveiled a pre-seed level investment in Canadian startup DOUBL.
DOUBL is a technology firm leveraging mobile and artificial technologies to reduce what the National Retail Federation estimates to be $900 billion in annual return costs for clothing brands worldwide.
“Sizing differs across brands and returns are free, so consumers order multiple sizes and return those that don’t fit,” says Camille Saltman, Co-founder and General Partner of OKGN WMAN Angel Funds.
DOUBL has developed “a breakthrough smartphone body scanning technology that empowers consumers to order the right clothing size across many brands,” Saltman says.
“Not only does this help retailers reduce lost revenue and environmental impacts from returns, it also helps apparel companies gauge what sizes to produce and in what quantity,” continues Saltman.
Based on Saltman’s assessment, DOUBL is “a perfect fit for our impact investment thesis.”
DOUBL marks the second consumer apparel related deal that OKGN WMAN Angel Funds has invested in and the second out of Western University Ivy Business School (the first being Apricotton).
Bryn Davis Williams, a cofounder of DOUBL, says of OKGN WMAN that, “from our first meeting, it was clear they bring more than a cheque.”
OKGN WMAN offers “deep retail and [software-as-a-service] scaling insight, meaningful human capital, and the momentum we need as we onboard our first retail partners and grow our community of early users,” suggests Williams, who serves DOUBL as chief executive officer.
The organization is focused on supporting female founders and chief executives in Canada, which is why it “means so much to receive support from OKGN WMAN Angel Funds,” according to cofounder Jessica Bosman.
“Getting early backing locally, from a group of impressive women with such diverse experience and perspectives, feels incredibly special,” says Bosman, who is based in the Okanagan.
Bosman, who serves DOUBL as CTO, describes the investment from OKGN WMAN as “catalytic support at exactly the right moment, and we’re deeply grateful to have it behind us as we build what comes next.”
OKGN WMAN is a suite of angel investment funds fuelled by several dozen accredited women investors have pooled capital to support Canadian social impact businesses founded or led by women.
Applications for support from OKGN WMAN can be submitted online.
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