August 22, 2023
Fearless Fund Awards $150K To Black-Owned Plant-Based Feminine Care Brand ‘Femly’
Femly, the organic Black-owned period care brand, has taken a major step toward its mission to “scale the future of restroom feminine care access thanks to its founder Arion Long taking home a $150,000 investment at this year’s Fearless Fund Venture Capital Summit.
The event, held in Atlanta, allowed women-led brands to pitch their businesses to a panel of investors with the opportunity to receive major financial contributions. Long and Femly came in second place on the day, joining Renatural, a beauty brand founded by Aasiyah Abdulsalam that took home first place, and Savoor, which took home third. Long, who often calls herself “The Chief Estrogen Officer,” shared the exciting news via Instagram. “Alongside members of our operations and media team, I had the pleasure of witnessing the collective #impact of Arian Simone and Ayana Parsons,” she said in a caption.
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Long continued, “There aren’t words to describe what it feels like to see yourself in a room full of founders who are rooting for you.” Femly has been making waves in the feminine care industry throughout the year. As previously reported, the brand’s products hit the shelves of CVS and other major retailers early this summer. In addition, vending machines housing Femly products are available in restrooms nationwide, further improving accessibility for those in need.
Long’s commitment to providing healthy, non-toxic alternatives for period-having people is rooted in her own experience with cervical tumors. She believes that a lack of education about what goes into feminine care products has put many at risk. “We assume because some of these pads are white, that they’re clean. That is so far from the truth,” she said. “Historically, many of the popular pad brands were made with synthetic materials like nylon, which is known for harboring heat and bacteria. The other side of that is many of these pads included ingredients like Bisphenol A bleach dioxins, which are linked to reproductive illnesses and cancer.”