Dominic McGregor, co-founder of Social Chain, has made the first investment from his Fearless Adventures venture capital fund in Swim Society, a swimwear brand started by the former Love Island contestant Montana Brown.
The fund, started last month by McGregor and the entrepreneurs David Newns and Charlie Yates, has invested £200,000 for a minority stake. It has pledged a further £800,000 in support services to help the business grow.
Brown started Swim Society in 2019, two years after appearing on the ITV2 show Love Island. Its swimwear, which typically retails for between £50 and £60 and is sold in sizes 6-20, is aimed at eco-conscious young shoppers.
McGregor, 28, said: “Montana is building a swim brand which is inclusive and uses a wide range of models, going against what the industry has historically been. Secondly, the last couple of years travel has been disrupted but we’re very confident that we are going to see a boom in travel… so we have no doubt that the next two years is going to be very exciting.”
He said Swim Society was forecasting sales of between £2.5 million and £3 million for 2022, and £5 million for 2023.
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Part of the appeal is that Brown has built a strong social media following since she appeared on Love Island in 2017. “A brand starting out now starts from zero. When you’ve got [Montana] behind it, it starts with her 3 million followers across Facebook, Instagram TikTok and YouTube. We’re backing the reach she has and the ability to convert that into sales,” McGregor said.
Brown, 26, who met McGregor on the social audio app Clubhouse, is finding there’s a steep learning curve that comes with the transition from influencer to entrepreneur. “When I met [McGregor] I was dipping my toe in the water so I could get a gauge of how much I could get,” she said. “The previous year and a half I had been paying for stock and salaries out of my own pocket. It was entirely self-funded. The first few conversations I had with VCs were very scary. I remember having these Zooms with people who were so money-focused saying, ‘We’ll probably take 40 or 50 per cent and we’ll take it over [and run the company]’.”
Brown had her fingers burnt by an earlier partnership where she lost control of her brand and did not want to make the same mistake again. As founder and managing director of Swim Society, she is gatekeeper for all decisions and recently chose to move manufacturing from Turkey to a family-run factory in Portugal, in line with the brand’s focus on sustainability.
She said she was up to the task. “There’s a stereotype of a person that goes on Love Island, that they’re not well-educated and that they just want easy money and that they don’t really have any business sense and I guess that’s something that I’ve always wanted to challenge. I’ve felt a massive pressure to prove myself.”
McGregor hinted that the Swim Society investment would look for further similar investments. It is aiming to raise a £15 million fund next March.
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“We’re looking for direct-to-consumer brands who are community led, so influencers will be part of that. They are the people who are starting big businesses in the e-comm space. Look at Rihanna; she’s made more money from her businesses than from music,“ said McGregor, who also advises the Cabinet Office on social media strategy. “The direct-to-consumer space is only going to continue to grow as people want more and more things on demand,” he said.
