MysteryVibe

MysteryVibe
Type of business Privately owned
Founded London, United Kingdom (2014)
Headquarters Shoreditch High Street
Area served Worldwide
Founder(s) Soumyadip Rakshit
Stephanie Alys
Rob Weekly
Shanshan Xu
Key people Akash Walia
Gabbi Cahane
Industry Health and Lifestyle
Website mysteryvibe.com
Alexa rank 168,892[1]
Launched 2014
Current status Active

MysteryVibe is a British manufacturer of sex toys.

History

MysteryVibe was founded by a group of researchers, engineers and designers. Inspired by trends in smartphones like Nokia Morph, the founders came up with the idea of creating a sex toy that would adapt to any body shape and vibrate to any pattern. They continued to research for a number of years before formally starting the company in May 2014, when they were incubated by London-based industrial design firm Seymourpowell.

MysteryVibe released their iOS app on the Apple App Store in December 2015 and their Android app on Google Play in September 2016. The apps are designed without any adult themes to support MysteryVibe's wider goal of improving sex education for teenagers and are the only apps in their class to be rated 12+. Their apps have been downloaded more than 250,000 times since launch.[2]

MysteryVibe's flagship product, Crescendo,[3] is the world's first vibrator that can be bent to adapt to any body shape.[4] Crescendo was the first crowdfunding project[5] to offer its backers 2 versions of their product: Pilot and Retail. They ran what they called the #Pilot1000 programme for their first 1,000 users to get feedback on their Crescendo product. The #Pilot1000 users spanned 48 countries and included both backers and experts. MysteryVibe gave all 1,000 users full access to their founding CEO with direct email, phone and Skype. They then used the feedback they received to make the final Retail Crescendo.[6]

Investment

MysteryVibe HQ
MysteryVibe is a member of the Soho House network with their headquarters based at Soho Works in London
Seymourpowell
MysteryVibe was incubated by the design firm Seymourpowell

Due to the lean model adopted by MysteryVibe with collectives and collaborations,[7] they were able to build the company from a sketch to shipped products with less than £1m ($1.5m) in funding.[8] They were also unique[9] in raising 100% of the money from Angel investors[10] without any recourse to Venture capital. As of Q2 2017, MysteryVibe has raised $3.5m in total funding.[11]

Slush conference, 2016
MysteryVibe's co-founder giving a talk at Slush conference in Helsinki, 2016

Awards

MysteryVibe has won numerous awards for their company, products and founders. Notable mentions are Red Dot,[12] IDA Design,[13] The Drum,[14] and Excellence in Design.[15] Their biggest recognition has been the Young Guns award.[16]

Virgin #VOOM2016

In June 2016, MysteryVibe became the first pleasure product to be featured by Virgin in their #VOOM competition. They were showcased under the Export Awards category for exporting their products to over 50 countries worldwide. This led to their selection to the Hardware Club and a nomination[17] for the 'Best Hardware Startup' award at The Europas in London.

Media attention

MysteryVibe is the first brand in their category to have been featured on BBC.[18] Ranked by European investors as No. 9 of the 100 Slush start-ups in Cofounder Magazine,[19] MysteryVibe has been named as one of the "Top 100 Europe's hottest early-stage Founders" by PathFounders, Europas.[20] They have been listed at No. 7 in the "12 days of start-ups: Spectacular businesses set for stardom in 2016".[21]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/mysteryvibe.com#
  2. ↑ "App Annie". App Annie. Retrieved 21 February 2016.
  3. ↑ "One Size Doesn't Fit All: The Making Of A Next-Generation Sex Toy". Co.Create. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  4. ↑ "Meet The Women Who Want To Help Other Women Orgasm". HuffPost. 30 March 2017. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  5. ↑ SA, BORN. "BORN.COM – Crescendo – The world's first truly personal adult toy by MysteryVibe". born.com. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  6. ↑ "Bustle". bustle.com. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  7. ↑ "Did This Couple Design the World's Best Sex Toy?". nerve.com. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  8. ↑ "MysteryVibe | CrunchBase". www.crunchbase.com. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  9. ↑ "3 ways to fund your sex startup". VentureBeat. 20 July 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  10. ↑ "Mysteryvibe". angel.co. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  11. ↑ "Mysteryvibe". angel.co. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  12. ↑ "Red Dot Product Design Award Winners". red-dot.de. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  13. ↑ "Design Awards Winners: MysteryVibe". idesignawards.com. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  14. ↑ "Meet the young women making waves in digital in The Drum's 50 under 30". The Drum. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  15. ↑ "Appliance Design Excellence in Design Awards". appliancedesign.com. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  16. ↑ "Stephanie Alys, Shanshan Xu and Soumyadip Rakshit: MysteryVibe – Young Guns by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business". Young Guns by Startups.co.uk: Start up a successful business. 16 September 2016. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  17. ↑ Butcher, Mike. "Vote now in The Europas Conference & Awards for European startups". TechCrunch. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  18. ↑ "Levine on Love, Long Distance Lovers". BBC iPlayer. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  19. ↑ Magazine, CoFounder. "The Slush 100 Start-ups – as picked by Top European Investors". Cofounder Magazine. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  20. ↑ "PathFounders". The Europas | 14 June 2016 | London. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  21. ↑ "12 days of start-ups: Spectacular businesses set for stardom in 2016 – Startups.co.uk: Starting a business advice and business ideas". startups.co.uk. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
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