Infamous Swim has secured backing of approximately $1 million through a group of entrepreneurs from the tech, e-commerce, fashion and communications sectors, with the founder of the original mummy-and-me swimwear brand confirming the label has been restructured and is now operating in a new company structure with new directors.
It comes after the swimwear brand went through voluntary administration earlier this year, but came out the other side.
Founder Gemma Crowe told SmartCompany that although she and the investors are all stakeholders in the new operation, she remains the CEO of Infamous Swim and will continue to lead the business as before.
Coming on board as external investors are tech CEO Alex Macpherson, startup investor Brad Down, Australian fashion designer Mary Ioannidis, commercial director Matt Child and growth-focused operations and information security specialist Greg Campbell.
The new investment and ownership structure comes after Infamous Swim attempted to raise $600,000 on crowdfunding platform Birchal in late 2023. However, the brand didn’t meet the minimum target and only raised $400,000, with the crowdfunded money returned to investors.
Crowe told SmartCompany that although the crowdfunding campaign had raised $400,000, Infamous Swim had targeted, and needed, more to stabilise the brand’s future direction.
“The lowest amount we wanted to receive was $600,000. The $400,000 was no small feat, but unless we received funding from a major investor to make up the rest, we were not going to commit to the crowdfunding,” she says.
“While we were really appreciative of the contributions made to the crowdfunding campaign, we realised this was the right time to bring on board external investors with the expertise to take Infamous even further.”
Crowe and her team “took the opportunity to regroup and re-structure the business” with the new business partners over the following months, and the business is stronger for it, she says.
“Their skill sets have been a wonderful complement to Infamous’ key strengths and have helped optimise and strengthen the business as a whole.”
On May 6, Infamous Swim posted a ‘‘We Are Back’ post on Instagram, which Crowe says marked the re-commencement of trading after a short break and renewed outlook for the business.
https://www.instagram.com/infamous_swim/p/C6n3ah3Jpov/?hl=en&img_index=1
Infamous’ future is bright, says Crowe, who is excited and invigorated about being able to rejuvenate the brand after what has been a period of intense strategic planning and investor searching.
She adds that new funding of around $1 million was needed to “ensure all facets of Infamous’ operations and growth plans are properly resourced, ” and it comes with valuable expertise.
“Having the support of such an experienced and capable team is also another great advantage that guarantees the success of our revamped strategy,” says Crowe.
“We are specifically targeting growth via exciting new product lines as well as increasing the reach into our amazing customer base.”
And that customer base remains strong. As of October 2023, Infamous Swim had sold more than 756,000 swimsuits to more than 440,000 people in the brand’s home base of Australia since it was founded in 2018.
The label has 674,000 Instagram followers, more than 123,000 followers on TikTok, and an email and SMS database of over 440,000 customers.
Crowe credits this customer base with helping the brand survive what can be an immense challenge for any business – voluntary administration.
According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) website, administrators were appointed to Infamous Swim on February 9, 2024.
Crowe said in a very unexpected turn of events, the voluntary administration process actually continued on to liquidation.
“(I) and the new investors wanted to ensure the brand, business and most importantly the staff could emerge as one and safe, rather than be disbanded and/or sold off in parts,” she says.
“(I) and Alex Macpherson combined heads on a re-capitalisation and operational strategy to be able to get the business back up and running, and Alex and the investment partners, subsequently went to the liquidation auction, ultimately being the very happy successful bidders.”
Every business experiences turbulence as part of the growth process, Crowe told SmartCompany, and there’s plenty of lessons to be learned.
“We are lucky we are able to bounce back from our decisions so quickly; strong branding and our customer base has been our saving grace,” she says.
“It’s critical to surround yourself with a support network of great mentors and trusted confidantes to help get through tough periods.
“The influx of information can be so overwhelming, and when you get caught up in the day-to-day running of businesses it’s easy to lose perspective.
“Without a support network many founders may find themselves struggling with mental health, so they need to be aware of this.”
In terms of finances, Crowe said she would caution business owners to be careful with taking on short-term business loans, particularly from tier-two lenders or revenue share lenders.
For Infamous Swim, “a short-term loan turned into a long-term loan and threw off our cash flow”, says Crowe.
“These types of loans might alleviate financial pressure during events like Covid but cause issues further down the line when punishing interest rates kick in,” she says.
“In small business, small events can escalate quickly so it’s critical business owners keep a tight grip on their finances.
“The other trap to watch for is with revenue share lending particularly if the lender’s predictions for growth are less optimistic than what you believe they will be. Even if you’re confident in your numbers it may end up impacting your cash flow due to high annualised interest rates.”
As for the future, Crowe says the ever-evolving resortwear category, which is showing signs of success for Infamous Swim, is an area where continued investment promises to yield more results.
“There are so many exciting new projects in the works particularly as we work on extending our size ranges to size 24/26,” she says.
“This has been an ongoing challenge, but we are committed to getting this spot on.
“Another area of opportunity is for a new activewear drop — we are being positively hounded for activewear with a similar aesthetic to our matching tracksuits and sprays jackets in our signature leopard prints with a boost of colour.
“We are so excited about the road ahead. We’ve got so many plans, and one of the biggest issues is what to do first.”
Crowe adds that it has been a match made in heaven thus far with the new partners on board and everyone moving quickly and purposefully to make sure the brand could come back bigger and better than before.
“There’s a big emphasis on ensuring the company finances and operations are configured efficiently and robustly to comfortably withstand any and all external challenges,” she says.
“Being transparent and preserving Infamous’ heritage is very important to us so the first priority is making sure the business is healthy and stable.
“The restructuring has been amazing for my productivity and creativity because I’m now supported by an incredible team who fill in the gaps and free up to do what I do best.
“This will ensure Infamous is able to scale up smoothly in its journey to becoming one of Australia’s most established legacy brands.”
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