British Brand Wype Raises $1.4M For “Bottom Care” Products In Oversubscribed Seed Round

Investors are getting bold about filling the hole in the market for modern butt care.

Wype, the London-based maker of a gel that turns toilet paper into a soothing, sustainable wet wipe alternative, has raised over 1 million pounds or roughly $1.4 million in seed funding in an oversubscribed round. It was led by Anotherway Ventures, backer of shaving and body care brand Nimbi and baby care brand Peachies, and Ventures Together, a network of 150-plus entrepreneurs and operators across Europe, with participation from the founders of supplements brand Heights and oral care brand Suri along with existing angel investors.

The latest round brings the total amount of funding self-proclaimed “bottom care” brand Wype has raised since its 2020 launch to more than 2.5 million pounds or almost $3.4 million. It will bankroll a brand refresh, retail scale-up and buildout of Wype’s assortment currently consisting of $12 intimate cleansing gel Viva La V, $15 Toilet Paper Gel Starter Kit and $12 Toilet Paper Gel refill.

“Wype is not just building a brand but a whole new category, it’s also a product that people need, not just want, which means long term loyalty, not just one-off sales,” says Jono Holt, partner at Anotherway Ventures, in a statement. “The month-on-month growth so far shows amazing early momentum at a time where most DTC brands are flatlining, and the opportunity to create, grow and then sell the brand that defines a category offers us a huge opportunity of a massive return on our investment.”

“Ultimately, we want to create a gold standard for bottom care and make it into a named category that even future brands are going to use to describe themselves,” says Giorgia Granata, who founded Wype with her husband Eli Khrapko. “Toilet paper sits in household, but it’s not skin experts or anal and perianal experts making it, it’s paper manufacturers. Then, when you look at symptom control, they treat the symptom, but they don’t treat the skin. We’re trying to sit between the bare minimum, which is dry toilet paper, and symptom control, and create a whole system for bottom care in there.”

Wype has seen rapid top-line growth of late. Since its appearance three years ago on BBC’s “Dragons’ Den,” the British equivalent of ABC business pitch competition show “Shark Tank,” which didn’t end in a deal, Wype’s revenue has increased 15X. Its annualized run rate is 4.5 million pounds or just over $6 million, following 2.2 million pounds or nearly $3 million in sales in 2024. Wype sells over 1,900 units every day. 

Granata and Khrapko encountered a much better reception of their brand’s concept in their most recent fundraise. A big reason, according to Granata, was its 10 consecutive quarters of growth. “It’s been the easiest round so far,” says Granata. “That doesn’t mean easy by any stretch of the imagination, but I think, for us, it was really about our traction. Plus, the U.K. is not a massive ecosystem, especially if you’re in consumer. So, people had heard of us.” 

Granata adds that the expansion of the femtech space with goods, services and technologies related to women’s health and wellness in recent years has conditioned even a room of all male venture capitalists to be open to products like Wype’s Toilet Paper Gel. “A lot of it is trying to remove the doubt and the fear around a new product that solves a problem in a different way that these people haven’t seen before,” says Granata. “That’s definitely harder than tackling the stigma.”

“We want to create a gold standard for bottom care and make it into a named category.”

With its flushable and biodegradable formula without the microplastics of wet wipes, Wype pledges to make bottom care routines more sustainable, but it’s not just about sustainability. Granata points out that wipes are generally too harsh for the thin, delicate skin of the anus. “You are applying this aggressive friction to the skin,” she says. “There’s a micron of some ingredient they want to say is in it, which is barely touching your skin because you’re literally wiping it off, and with it you’re taking off all the healthy bacteria and damaging the ecosystem of the skin.”

Wype is sold in direct-to-consumer distribution, online at Boots and Holland & Barrett and on Amazon in the United Kingdom and United States. DTC makes up the lion’s share of Wype’s sales, but the brand is seeing growth in every channel. Since premiering on Boots’ website a year ago, Wype’s sales at the chain have multiplied 5X. Wype recently landed at Holland & Barrett, and Granata reports its performance has been strong there, too. She teases that in-store rollouts in the U.K. are around the corner for Wype. 

Beauty Independent first took notice of butt care in 2018, and it’s only swelled. In June, private equity firm TSG Consumer swiped a minority stake in butt wipe brand Dude Wipes. Butt care trailblazer Future Method offers everything from anal dilators to douches to probiotic supplements, while beauty-focused brands like Bawdy, Truly, Maelys and Sol de Janeiro offer targeted cheek care. Asset launched last year with calming, hydrating and brightening Hole Serum.

The brand Luna Daily sells The Everywhere Spray-To-Wipe, a toilet paper spray similar to Wype’s Gel, and a Motherhood Collection with Perineal Prep Oil and Post-Birth Soothing Spray for the perineum. Hemorrhoid-relief specialist MyBum launched last October and Beam Butt Care made its debut this year with a suite of products for rear end woes such as acne, keratosis pilaris and hemorrhoids. The popular personal care brand Megababe followed up its Le Tush butt mask with Butt Stuff hemorrhoid cream, and influencer Julianna Christensen dropped the personal care brand Roame in May to help consumers maintain hygiene on the go.

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