Made.com, Lastminute.com, and Moshi Monsters backer Tom Teichman joins Simba as chairman. Other notable investors include all three Innocent Drinks founders (exited to Coca-Cola for $500m) and Sir John Hegarty, founder of global advertising giant BBH
Why the excitement? The Simba team, benefiting from more than 30 years experience in mattress manufacture, having sold in excess of one million mattresses, have perfected a unique combination of Simbatex, Memory Foam and 2,000 Conical Springs integrated into their five layers of comfort that means a Simba mattress intelligently shapes itself to anyone’s frame – even if they are sharing a bed with someone of an opposite build or stature.
Comfort for all sizes and a perfect night’s #sleep. We keep it simple https://t.co/IwQ3FazAJA pic.twitter.com/eGNvtlsE9T
— Simba Sleep (@SimbaSleep) February 12, 2016
The mattress is uniquely compressed, rolled and folded and delivered to a customer’s doorstep within 24 hours in an easy to manage 1m x 0.5m x 0.5m box with a 10 year guarantee. Customers also benefit from a 100-night sleep trial, so if they don’t love it Simba will simply come and pick it up free of charge, removing the confusion and uncertainty associated with purchasing a mattress.
Simba@SimbaSleep have achieved ‘simplicity of sleep’ by producing only one type of mattress, perfect for all customers. All you have to do is choose between their five different sizes, Single, Small Double, Double, King and Super King.
James Cox, Simba co-founder and CEO, said: “You spend on average 26 years of your life on your mattress, yet it’s the most underserviced, misunderstood part of one’s life, that’s why we started Simba. We set out to produce the best and simplify the rest.”
Simba predominantly sell directly to customers online (www.simbasleep.com), but have also entered into an exclusive High St partnership with John Lewis. Simba will be on display in John Lewis’ Oxford St, High Wycombe, Milton Keynes and Cribbs Causeway (Bristol) stores and Peter Jones in Q1 2016.
John Lewis Buyer of Beds and Bedroom Furniture, Katherine Mitchell, says: “I am very excited to be part of the launch of Simba with truly innovative spring technology and an extensive analysis of customer feedback. John Lewis customers are used to the best. I was keen that we could bring them the latest revolution in mattresses which Simba have brought to the market for the first time.”
Chairman, Tom Teichman, recently reported as The UK’s most successful digital investor, said: “John Lewis is arguably the most trusted bedroom furniture retailer in the UK, they are renowned experts in product selection.
“For them to take Simba on as a start-up says everything about the premium quality of what the team have produced, and reinforces our belief, as investors, that Simba will change the way the nation sleeps”.
“The current mattress-selling model of inflated levels of so-called ‘discounting’ means customers are uncertain whether they are getting a good deal or not.”
Richard Reed, co-founder of Innocent Drinks, added: “Combine this with the vast array of choice on the market and there is no way to properly compare price or quality. Simba’s well thought out and genuinely innovative one mattress proposition is the solution to a global issue.”
Sir John Hegarty, creative guru responsible for the global success of brands such as Audi, Stella Artois, Levi’s and Johnnie Walker, added: “The fragmented, noisy and confused mattress market presents a great opportunity to create a global sleep brand, leveraging the groundbreaking next generation sleep technology the team have created.”
The Simba team developed the mattress with The Sleep to Live Institute, the world’s leading sleep organisation. They analysed 180 million body profile data points (18 points per body on 10 million bodies) before developing the Simba mattress. It was then developed and tested over 10 months with more than 75 prototypes built. At the end of the process they had the right combination of materials required for the perfect night’s sleep for one and all.
Simba is manufactured in the UK under the endorsement of the National Bed Federation.
Co-founder Cox, has stepped from the boardroom into the bedroom with Simba Sleep. The London-based former corporate financier and co-founders, Andrew and Harry McClements have finally delivered a much-needed wake-up call to the global mattress industry.
The McClements have 31 years experience in the mattress manufacture business, running a family business that has supplied thread to the mattress industry for generations.
