5 Milestones for 5 Years: Nudea founder talks funding women, intentional expansion and B Corps

Five years ago, Priya Downes set about on a mission to reshape the underwear industry. Recognising a lack of practical yet contemporary lingerie on the market, particularly for women facing rapid life changes, she left her job in the luxury field to embark on a new journey. A one in which she went head on against learning curves, sustainability obstacles and a sense of consumer fatigue towards underwear as a whole.

Now, Downes’ lingerie brand Nudea has cemented itself in the UK, slowly but steadily moving up from its status as a start-up to become a nationally recognised name. With 30,000 active customers now on record, reflecting widening loyalty to the brand, Downes said that Nudea represented the “creation of a movement of people that feel empowered in their own bodies”.

FashionUnited spoke with Downes, who also serves as CEO, on some highlights from Nudea’s five years of life, while also looking into the near-term future of the brand, from a planned fundraise to opportunities beyond the UK.

The market: From Skims to sleepwear

Since Nudea’s launch in 2019, the lingerie market has taken sharp twists and turns, driven by large-scale competitors and macroeconomic factors. For Downes, one significant change was the introduction of Kim Kardashian’s shapewear brand, Skims, which she said had a “powerful influence” on the industry since its launch, also in 2019. “It opened up the gate for all of us,” Downes said on the now four billion dollar label. “[The lingerie market] was being disrupted in bits by smaller brands, but Skims came along and said ‘we need to look at this differently’. It got people to open up and say: ‘Actually, I do want to be a bit more adventurous with my underwear.’”

The pandemic also ushered in what Downes referred to as the “comfort revolution”, during which it seemed as though overnight bras had become almost unessential, thus pushing different needs and desires towards underwear. Customers were looking for products that were both physically and inwardly comfortable, boosting demand for non-wired bras, particularly among younger generations. It is a sentiment that to this day has remained fairly intact.

Continuing strong into its five year mark, Nudea has exhibited an ability to adapt to this ever-changing market, with Downes always keeping her eyes peeled for opportunities to bring the brand’s vision into new realms. Expansion into sleepwear was an example of this, with the initial collection’s success having quickly cemented the category into Nudea’s fibres, with Downes now even describing the brand as both a lingerie and sleepwear label. “We were really ahead of the ‘bed to beach’ movement,” she noted. “[Our sleepwear] hit a sweet spot, probably more than we could have imagined. That category took off for us.”

Overcoming challenges in funding women founders

One of the biggest milestones emphasised by Downes was the company’s 2022 crowdfunding, which was overfunded by around 180 percent. The goal was to get customers involved in the brand’s journey, a mission that was seemingly achieved, as many took to investing in the brand. “The fact that customers believe in you and want to be a part of your future is probably the biggest reward for me. Customers not only want to buy from me, as a female entrepreneur, but they also want to invest,” Downes said.

While this support has remained an important part of Nudea’s trajectory, Downes recognised that securing such backing can still be tricky in the current environment. Women founders are still marginalised in comparison to men when it comes to funding. A report by Forbes stated that the amount of capital going into backing women-founded businesses dropped to 1.8 percent in the first half of 2024, as compared to the 86 percent that goes to all-male founder teams. It is something that Downes is acutely aware of and sees mirrored in her own experiences.

“Being a female founder, particularly for a consumer brand, I do feel like I get questioned more than if I had a male counterpart. It’s still tough as a female founder to raise money,” she noted. “That being said, a lot of the people that have invested in us have been men. There’s still more work to be done to get women more comfortable investing in others. There needs to be a holistic infrastructure change when looking at how women can get more funding in general.”

Downes has contributed her own efforts to this cause by joining Alma Angels, an organisation designed to level the playing field for female entrepreneurs aiming to secure startup funding. This is particularly notable in the current context, with Nudea preparing for a new funding round in 2025 as it looks to enter its next phase of life.

B Corp and sustainability: Lingerie akin to luxury beauty

This year will also bring new challenges in the way of sustainability, a value that has been ingrained into Nudea since day one, and is set to be reaffirmed as the company reapplies for its B Corp certification in February. Downes’ decision to lean on sustainability has been intentional from the outset, tying to her personal principle of buying less and buying better. The challenge with underwear, however, is that it is often left out of circularity discussions, instead deemed to be a throw away piece that is unable to be rented, donated or resold.

Downes wanted to be a part of the solution. While she noted similarities between luxury fashion and lingerie due to her past experiences, Downes actually saw more reason to compare underwear to that of beauty – a luxury you don’t typically see. Where customers look to invest in a good face cream, they should also look to invest in a decent bra. It is at this crossroads that Nudea places itself, presenting as a brand that avoids frivolities, and puts the focus on technical qualities.

Such a mindset also puts Nudea ahead of the game in terms of complying to sustainability requirements. In its first year of life, the company carried out its first lifecycle analysis, and has been carbon auditing ever since. This information is also available through the brand’s website, and via QR codes that allow customers to see the impact of their purchase. Over the next year, Nudea expects to add to the information provided, with plans to include more factors like water usage and fabric origins.

This is particularly important in the wake of new EU regulations set to come in over the next few years, but also as the company continues to prepare for its B Corp recertification, which requires a revisit every three years. This process has become more challenging since Nudea was first certified, with stricter measures now in place. Yet, Nudea’s preparedness allows it to be a front runner. “As a small business, we have the benefit of already having all that data ahead of time. We also have the infrastructure and data gathering systems that pull all this information together,” Downes noted.

From the local market to the US

Much of Nudea’s ability to align with B Corp specifications and sustainability requirements comes as a result of long-running, stable relations with its supplier base. The certification is also a factor that allows it to stand out on the global market, particularly in North America, where there is a general lack of eco-centric brands. This remains imperative for Nudea, as it continues to up its presence in the US, where it recently struck up a partnership with retail giant Nordstrom, expanding out from its prior connections with smaller boutiques. Now selling via the retailer’s online site, Downes sees the partnership as a small step in a thought-out growth strategy for the brand, which she said was not quite ready for a full US expansion.

“US expansion involves a lot of capital, logistics and marketing, and we’re not quite there yet. We have a growing database for customers there, and we’re increasingly seeing more orders from them. It's not easy to return clothing or get a firm shipping rate, so that provides a barrier. Whilst we do have some physical stockists in the US, we can’t cover all that ground. Being online with Nordstrom makes us more accessible. It sets the groundwork for when we are fully ready to go out there,” Downes said.

For 2025, Downes is also eyeing similar opportunities in Canada with Hudson’s Bay, yet though expansion is on her mind, Nudea’s origins hold significance. The company initially started solely online, which now makes up a "significant chunk of the business”, something Downes is proud of as it shows that “growth has come from the brand itself”. While challenges from recent years pushed a need for wholesale, 2024 saw online return to its former glory, with sales from the division contributing to 60 percent of turnover. This was further bolstered by a partnership with John Lewis, for which sales were up 198 percent.

Downes commented: “It’s a brilliant win for us, because online is where profit is. We’re really pleased to see that level of growth. We’ve had a very positive [2024], with both retailers and ourselves online. It’s been almost a breath of fresh air after some challenging years in between. One thing I am proud to say is that, even though we cut spending, we still slowly grew. We’ve remained extremely lean, and we haven’t overraised.”

Support in Etam accelerator as Europe exhibits potential

On the back of growth in the US, Nudea is also eyeing certain regions in Europe for potential expansion. However, akin to North America, Downes underlines that these markets are to only be explored in an informed fashion. Nudea had previously sold via Zalando, but exited the e-commerce platform as Brexit-related challenges mounted. This resulted in a departure from Germany, France, Italy and Spain, where, despite prior challenges, Nudea still sees opportunity to return.

“What Zalando offered us was a really good test of what we can do in Europe. We realised that physical growth was also important. Europeans shop slightly differently. We want to be in a position where we can go into that market in a very planned and strategic way, rather than just be opportunistic about it,” Downes said.

Much of this could be bolstered by Nudea’s involvement in Etam Group’s WeDareLab accelerator programme, which it was selected for in November 2024. Over an eight month period, Nudea will participate in a customised support programme, with a focus on new product innovations and building a strategy to enter the European market, possibly through the establishment of strategic partners.

Downes said Etam’s knowledge had been amazing to tap into. She added: “They are helping in everything, from product to design to wholesale to tapping into the European market. They are an open book. We’re really excited to work with them to develop the business, not just on the product side, but commercially. Even for our next investment round, we can look into how they can support us there too. They are exactly what they promised: an accelerator programme to scale brands.”

What is to come from 2025?

So, with a fundraise on the horizon, a B Corp recertification due and further market expansions in Europe and North America ahead, 2025 seems to be pitted as another year of major transition for Nudea. Downes also envisions a year in which the UK as a whole could enter into more positivity, as the macroeconomic environment settles into place.

In her closing remarks, Downes said: “I’m really excited about where we are, and what the future brings in 2025. We’re looking to go big on brand awareness. In the last year, people have been quite negative about things like the economy and this looming change of government, but I feel like a lot of that is behind us. I’m not saying we’re out of the woods yet, there’s still a lot of uncertainty and jitters in the market. But the growth we saw [in 2024] has made me excited for a new phase, coming out of the instability of the last three years. In the UK, we’ve settled into a new world, so let’s get on with life.”