A 海角视频 sustainable kidswear rental subscription service saw its customer base grow by 233% in 2022 and achieved almost 110% of its latest Seedr crowdfunding campaign.
London-based Bundlee was formed in 2018 to tackle ‘fast fashion’ in the kidswear market. The rental service was founded by Eve Kekeh after she witnessed first-hand how quickly children grow out of clothes.
Ms Kekeh discovered the average family spends £2,000 on children’s clothing annually; it is the third largest expense after childcare and food. Whilst outgrown garments contribute to the 300,000 tonnes of clothing that the 海角视频 sends to landfill each year.
READ MORE: {}
Speaking to BusinessLive , Ms Kekeh explained: “I had the idea because I’ve got much younger siblings, there’s an 18 year age gap between me and the youngest, so I experienced from the older sister perspective how quickly they outgrow their clothes and how much waste it led to and also how our home would just get overrun with mountains of baby clothes constantly.”
Ms Kekeh told us that children will outgrow several clothing sizes in the years zero-to-two years. This is the age group that Bundlee first started catering for before upping its offering to three years. The latest round of funding will allow the business to expand its clothing sizes and bring on new brand partnerships.
“We’ve got some really really exciting brand partnerships in the pipeline and we want to just continue to keep improving on what we offer,” said Ms Kekeh.
It was while studying abroad in the US that she experienced the rental market for the first time and realised that it was a “more affordable way to access clothes”.
Back home, Ms Kekeh embarked upon a Masters course where she was given the opportunity to spend a year researching a business idea and developing a thesis.
Most Read
She said: “That was when rental in the 海角视频 was such a new market, we weren’t really renting much back then, especially not clothing. There were few other startups in the womenswear space, but no one had attempted it yet in kidswear in the 海角视频, and this was like 2018 when I started working on it. It grew from there.”
Ms Kekeh won a pitching competition at the University of Manchester, which awarded her some capital alongside grant funding from Innovate 海角视频 to develop Bundlee’s backend technology.
“That is one of the biggest challenges of rental, is the on-demand rental technology,” she said.
“Because we were creating a whole new business model, rental subscription model for the kidswear space, we had to build out a lot of the technology ourselves and the backend systems.”
Bundlee works with different software development agencies to build out their rental platform, which the initial grant fund helped secure.
“So once we got the grant funding I was able to go full time in the business and start actually building up the systems to make it work and also at that point I ran a trial with eight families.”
Bundlee now employs four people; three full time and one part time. This second round of funding through Seedr will allow the team to further expand.
'Many brands want to be involved with a circular business model but struggle to implement it themselves'
Don’t miss
Ms Kekeh added: “I think that is something that future entrepreneurs should think about, how can they bring sustainability into the core of their business model rather than having it as an add on.”
The entrepreneur said having sustainability at the core of her business has been the best part of her journey.
Bundlee has already completed over 70,000 clothing rentals since launching, saving 140,000kg of CO2e and 24 million litres of water. In total the model saves 86% of the CO2e emissions and 96% of the water usage compared to buying new clothes.
Plus, it’s not just for environmental reasons that parents turn to the rental service. The current cost-of-living crisis has seen parents “becoming more price conscious”.
“We haven’t seen it affect us in terms of numbers,” said Ms Kekeh. “But we’ve seen people ask more questions about how much they can save.
She continued: “Maybe before they would have considered buying one of these pieces but now they can’t quite justify it so they see us as a way to access good quality clothing.
“Quite a lot of the time sustainable options are more expensive, which is why the rental model is so great as it’s cheaper than buying and you’re doing your bit for the planet.”
With prices starting at £13 a month, Bundlee offers a range of luxury clothing from brands including Stella McCartney, Patagonia, Mori, Little Riley Studio, Mini Rodini, and also footwear brand Vivobarefoot.
Retail prices for Stella McCartney's babywear collection, which launched in 2010, trails from £34 for T-shirts to £67 for dresses and swimsuits.
Stella McCartney previously said: "As a mother of four, I’ve seen first-hand how quickly my kids grew out of their clothes. In a time when we need to consume less and do more for the planet, the idea of rentals in the childrenswear space makes perfect sense and I’m thrilled that Stella McCartney kids can be a small part of this journey."
Ms Kekeh explained that many brands want to be involved with a circular business model but struggle to implement it themselves.
She continued: “So a brand coming to us can get involved with rental and increase the amount of circular initiatives they are doing, without having to do it all themselves, it’s great for them.
'I think the most important thing is just to start before you’re ready'
“And then it also helps open up their product to a customer who can’t quite justify spending those really high price points when they know it’s being outgrown so quickly.”
Ms Kekeh has found that when parents are expecting a child they have intentions to be more sustainable but when the child is born the actions go down as they have a lot to deal with.
She said that Bundlee therefore aims to be convenient and slot easily into family life.
“What we’ve done is offer parents benefits alongside the sustainability initiative to change their assumptions and behaviour.
“But I think it is constantly a challenge, because I think as a whole people agree we should be more sustainable but it is getting the individuals to actually take the actions is more challenging,” she explained.
Starting a business can feel like a huge feat and many people think it all needs to be figured out before they begin, according to the rental platform founder.
“But actually I think the most important thing is just to start before you’re ready and just start by taking that first step,” said Ms Kekeh.
“Once you’ve done the first thing you work out what you need to get to the next thing but it doesn’t have to be perfect when you first begin and it never will be perfect. You will always be learning and I think it’s important to get your idea out there onto the market as soon as possible as you learn so much more when it’s out there and you’re getting feedback from potential customers.”
Ms Kekeh said that she had a good mentor about six months into Bundlee who was a massive support and ended up investing in the company. She would advise anyone starting out in business to seek out a mentor.
She added: “Also what I think is good having are peers you can go to, who are at a similar stage of business as you or a stage above what you’re at because you get so much valuable advice from people who are doing it day-in-day-out.”
- Bundlee will be at The Baby & Toddler show in London September 29 - October 1, Manchester November 17-19, and Birmingham November 3-5.
- You can discover more about the rental service online at https://bundlee.co.uk/.