Why We Invested In Cadence
We’re excited to announce our fund’s first investment in a DTC brand, Cadence.
The Problem:
The sad reality is that 9% of plastic produced is recycled. With 380 million tons of plastic being produced, as of 2015, that’s a considerable amount of plastic that ends up in landfills, being burnt, or in our oceans (Ocean Foundation). Ocean Bound Plastic tends to be broken down which turns into microplastics, which are not only dangerous to the ocean environment but also end up in our food and water.
Cadence’s Solution:
Cadence is building the first personal travel organizer made from ocean-bound plastic. Customers who want to stay organized while commuting, traveling, or throughout their homes, can use Cadence capsules to organize their skincare, shampoos, jewelry, vitamins. You name it. With aesthetically pleasing, durable containers Cadence is building an ecosystem of storage devices for consumers to more sustainably organize their lives.
Why We Invested:
We believe that Cadence’s beautifully designed, durable capsules will not only convince more consumers to stop buying single-use plastic bottles, they will also motivate more consumers to transfer the storage of their everyday items out of single-use plastic containers.
Their founding team’s obsession with designing a completely sustainable experience extends from their product design and packaging to their site and marketing. That obsession with sustainable, elegant design will open the door to massive opportunities for the brand. The passion to solve this problem and their vision shine through in everything the company does. With the current travel capsules being the first solution to this problem.
Projected Impact:
Reducing consumption comes down to durable products that consumers are proud to use every day. The more reusable a product is the easier it will be to eliminate the need for one-off products. Roughly 9 billion single-use plastic travel bottles and 6 billion silicone travel bottles will end up on beaches and in landfills in our lifetime. Reducing the plastics that enter our oceans will reduce the number of species that are going extinct due to consuming plastics. Finally, it will also reduce the amount of plastic humans consume by eating fish and other marine food sources that are filled with plastic as well.
If you are interested in learning more about the Igniterate fund, check out why we started the fund here.