POW Inc., a Seattle-based maker of outdoor sports apparel, today announced $2.5 million in fresh funding from Columbia Pacific Advisors.
Founded in 2002 as a winter glove company, POW has gone on to operate three brands — POW Gloves, Holden Outerwear, Spacecraft — and sell outdoor sports apparel to more than 35 countries around the globe. The new round will be used to bolster sales, marketing, and production.
This is part of Columbia Pacific’s $100 million fund it announced back in May. The firm is led by two long-time technology investors: Former investment director at Intel Capital Jeff Schrock and former Comerica Bank vice president Kevin Barber.
Columbia Pacific sets itself apart by using a combination of debt and equity to invest in companies like POW — businesses that may not meet the lending requirements of a bank but don’t want to work with a VC firm.
“This is unique because most, nearly all, capital providers in tech are locked into one form of capital or the other. We can utilize either type of facility,” Schrock told us in May. “This can reduce the burden of maintaining multiple capital relationships and provide an overall lower cost of capital to the company. It also allows us to be supportive to companies who are on a growth track but perhaps don’t have the unicorn/home-run profile required by traditional equity providers.”
Columbia Pacific has already produced one success, backing New York-based ComiXology, the digital comics startup that was acquired earlier this year by Amazon.com. Other current and former portfolio companies include Blue Box Group; World CNG; Next IT; Lighthouse eDiscovery; and Northeast Wireless Networks.
