🛌 The Billion-Dollar Sleep Club

Eight Sleep just raised $100M at a ~$1B valuation, cementing itself in the connected health + sleep optimization race alongside Oura and Whoop.

By the numbers (2025 est.):

• Eight Sleep → $100M+ revenue, $260M raised, ~$1B valuation (~10× rev multiple)

• Oura → $400M+ revenue, ~$420M raised, $5.2B valuation (~13×)

• Whoop → $200M+ revenue, ~$400M raised, $3.6B valuation (~18×)

The question: who wins the battle for our sleep dollars? Each is pursuing a slightly different wedge; hardware + mattress systems (Eight Sleep), sleek wearables (Oura), or performance tracking (Whoop).

🛍 Claire’s: A Cautionary Tale in Teen Retail

Claire’s has taken down ~$3B in Wall Street capital from Apollo, Elliott, and Monarch over the last two decades — and still finds itself back in bankruptcy in 2025.

• 2007: Apollo LBO’d Claire’s at $3.1B, betting on global expansion.

• 2018: Elliott + Monarch swapped $1.9B debt for control in Chapter 11.

• 2025: $750M+ revenue, but crushed under $1B debt, closing stores, seeking buyers.

Despite pivots to ear piercing services, influencer tie-ins, and partnerships, mall-based traffic declines and fast-moving rivals have left the brand in survival mode.

Lesson: even defensible niches can’t outrun bad capital structures and shifting consumer behavior.

🥤Building the Next $1B+ Beverage Platform

Butterfly Equity is quietly assembling Generous Brands into a powerhouse fresh-beverage platform. The latest piece: acquiring Health-Ade Kombucha for $500M.

• Health-Ade → Founded 2012, raised ~$54M, $250M retail sales, 65,000+ stores

• Now joins Bolthouse Farms (smoothies), Evolution Fresh (juices), Sambazon (açaí)

• Combined retail sales = $1B+

This is classic platform roll-up strategy: consolidate niche leaders under one operational + distribution umbrella, then scale margin through shared supply chain and retail leverage.

🎙 Podcast Spotlight: Springdale Ventures’ View From 1,000 Deals

Mollye Santulli of Springdale Ventures shared what breaks through the noise when her firm reviews 1,000+ consumer deals a year and backs just 5–10:

• Founders > Flashy Growth: repeat purchase rates and authentic customer love trump vanity metrics.

• Community Matters: brands that build cult-like followings show long-term defensibility.

• Series A Realities: in today’s tighter capital markets, few consumer brands reach the scale to justify later rounds.

• Future Bets: she’s watching Gen Z entering parenthood and superfan-driven communities as the next big waves.

This is a rare investor-side perspective on what actually earns capital in consumer today.

🎧 Watch on YouTube, listen on Spotify.

That’s it for this week.
If you liked this issue, forward to a friend who obsesses over brand strategy, capital flows, or exit timing.

In the Money – following the flow of capital in consumer

P.S. We love talking to brands interested in exiting in the next 3-18 months. If you know of any brands interested in exiting, or any firms trying to help port cos manage turnarounds, we'd love to share a POV.

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