Mark Cuban, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashton Kutcher, others invest in tree-free toilet paper startup
Summary
Months after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, when Americans emptied store shelves of essential products, Cloud Paper says it has added thousands of U.S. households. Greycroft led the round and celebrity investors including Mark Cuban, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary (Sound Ventures), and Hadi Partovi (Code.org) chipped in. “The most important criteria during fundraising was finding investors and advocates who are passionate about building a tree-free paper movement with us,” said Austin Watkins, who co-founded the startup along with Ryan Fritsch. They offered payment grace periods for small businesses, which included many of the team’s favorite restaurants and bars in the Seattle area. This became a critical lever as we shifted priorities from B2B customers to thousands of new household deliveries.” The $3 million makes up Cloud Paper’s total funding to date.