Award-winning crowdfunded accessories help avoid everyday crankiness
Turtleneck, a Norwegian company based out of Oslo, has a novel approach to internationalisation: it crowdfunds its way to international markets. With an award-winning Kickstarter campaign under its belt, the company has now opened an equity campaign on Invesdor.
Turtleneck’s accessories are designed to help avoid everyday crankiness by solving common accessory problems in a fashionable way. For instance, ‘Pullover by Turtleneck’ is a sleeve for your earphones that keeps their cords tangle-free, while ‘Høytrykk by Turtleneck’ is a portable vibration speaker that you can attach to any surface you happen to have available.
“Our products have to make the user feel good and look great when wearing it,” Turtleneck co-founder Karstein Lien summarises Turtleneck’s design ethos.
In a short period of time the company has expanded from a one-product company focused on the ‘Pullover by Turtleneck’ to a fashion-tech lifestyle brand with three other products launched in 2016 and three more on the way in Q1 and Q2 of 2017.
Turtleneck is no rookie when it comes to crowdfunding: the company’s Kickstarter campaign in November 2015 won the award for the best Norwegian crowdfunding campaign in the consumer goods category. Now Turtleneck is turning to equity to raise funding for hiring sales personnel.
“We love crowdfunding, it’s a fun challenge and a very logical move from a business perspective. Our goal is to get 50 to 100 new co-owners. This may sound resource consuming, but we believe that the value they bring to our business is worth so much more than the extra work that follows. Think about it, our new owners will also act as brand ambassadors, merchants, idea accelerators and problem solvers. In addition, they hold competencies and knowledge that can be useful for us,” Tore Helland, co-owner and CEO explains.
”We love Turtleneck’s approach; they don’t take themselves seriously but they are serious about the business they do - making well engineered products that solve everyday problems. Since we met I have bought a Turtleneck solution for my earphones, raved about it so much that 6 other people in the Invesdor team have bought one since,” comments Peter Moore, Invesdor’s Equity Director in Norway and Sweden.
“Following an award-winning Kickstarter, it only makes sense that they move to the next step and raise equity funding with Invesdor.”
Contact:
Karstein Lien, Co-founder and COO, Turtleneck AS
karstein.lien@turtleneck.life
Mikko Savolainen, communications manager, Invesdor Ltd.
mikko.savolainen@invesdor.com, +358 40 747 5205
Turtleneck in brief:
Turtleneck is a Scandinavian fashion-tech accessory brand helping people avoid everyday crankiness by eliminating their irritating everyday problems. Its first product, Pullover by Turtleneck®, was launched in November 2015. It is a beautiful textile sleeve that makes your earphones tangle free. You don’t have to carry with you any separate devices or buy a new set of earphones. Continue to use the earphones you already have. Make them awesome looking and tangle free.
Invesdor in brief:
Invesdor is the Nordic market leader in equity crowdfunding platforms measured in invested capital and revenue in 2015. A financial technology (fintech) company founded in Finland in 2012, Invesdor operates an online investment platform that connects ambitious European growth companies with investors worldwide. So far Invesdor has helped raise more than 26 million euros and hosted 73 successful equity crowdfunding campaigns.
Invesdor's clients include private and publicly traded companies from Finland, the UK, Norway and Denmark as well as investors from more than 50 countries. Invesdor has offices in London and Helsinki.
