Brooklyn Bedding and Helix Sleep are expanding their direct-to-consumer mattress platform.
The two brands on Thursday announced they acquired Bear Mattress for an undisclosed amount. Scott Paladini, Bear Mattress founder and CEO, will continue to lead the business, according to a company press release.
“Similar to us, Brooklyn-Helix is centered around first-class customer experiences, high-quality products, and superior value, and these pillars will continue to define Bear Mattress in our next chapter,” Paladini said in a statement. “With the backing of the Brooklyn-Helix platform, we will be able to further drive Bear Mattress's mission to improve the health, wellness, and overall quality of life for customers."
Bear Mattress, a DTC brand founded in 2015, creates products catered to those with active lifestyles. In 2015, the brand launched its first bed targeted toward athletes, and said it “helps people sleep better and recover faster.”
The deal to acquire Bear Mattress comes after private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management last year acquired Helix Sleep and Brooklyn Bedding and combined them to create a DTC mattress platform. Through the transaction, in which the two companies continued to operate under their respective names, Brooklyn Bedding CEO John Merwin was tapped to lead the combined business while Helix Sleep co-founders Adam Tishman, Kristian von Rickenbach and Jerry Lin were set to lead the DTC segment.
The online mattress space has increasingly become saturated with competition over the years. Brands like Purple, Casper, Nectar and Avocado sought out to entice consumers through their bed-in-a-box model, which cut out the middleman by shipping products directly to consumers. And others, including bedding brand Parachute, have expanded into the category in recent years. But even Casper — a so-called darling among DTC brands and helped lead the disruption in the sector — has faced financial challenges. After years of losses, the brand inked a deal with private equity firm Durational Capital Management just under two years after making its public market debut.
