Cloudveil announces new investors and company execs

Cloudveil announced that it has received a “significant private capital infusion” that will ensure the company’s “long-term corporate stability and continued growth.” Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Joining co-founders Brian Cousins, the company president, and Steve “Sulli” Sullivan, the company vice president of marketing and product development, on the management team are new investors Jon Boris and Michael McGregor. Boris has been named Cloudveil’s vice president of corporate development and McGregor the company’s vice president of operations.

“Brian and I came to the point where we could no longer continue to grow the company as long as we were financing it entirely ourselves,” Sullivan told SNEWS. “We realized that if we were going to take this company to the next level, we were going to have to bring some outside money in.”

Sullivan stressed that at no time was Cloudveil ever in trouble or financially challenged as had frequently been rumored. “Sales were going up every year and we were doing well,” Sullivan told us. “At no time have we ever been in financial difficulty.”

Sullivan told SNEWS that at the same time they began looking around for investment dollars, Boris and McGregor began looking for outdoor companies to invest in.

“Brian’s nickname is ‘lucky’ and it continues to be sure. Jon and Michael bring serious experience on the financial end and business end in addition to investment dollars, and they’re also great guys who love the outdoors,” Sullivan said.

When asked what retailers would notice most with the new investment, Sullivan stated that service is going to get better. “We take a lot of pride in taking third place in the ‘Best Small Company’ category from the SNEWS Retailer Survey last year — that meant a lot to us. But we can do better. Customer service is so important to us. Retailers will notice that our operational platform will improve so that we will deliver orders right on time instead of just about on time,” added Sullivan.

Sullivan also told us that Cloudveil would be stepping up its successful grassroots marketing campaigns in a way that would be broader and more frequent. “Marketing and operational improvements are stage one,” Sullivan said. “Stage two will be to turn Cloudveil into not just a great apparel company but a great business as well.”

SNEWS View: We’ve been anticipating this announcement for a few weeks now and couldn’t be happier for the team. With deeper pockets, Cloudveil should be able to ramp up R&D and product development on a far greater level than it currently is able which can only spell good things for its retail base. Considered an innovator that launched the “soft-shell” (gag, we hate that word) category in the United States — though it wasn’t called that when Cloudveil introduced the Serendipity in 1997 — we expect more solid designs and innovative use of fabrics and applications from the company in the years to come.