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To make bridesmaid dress shopping a less frustrating and itchy process, Chicago-based has raised $7 million, led by , with participation from Sawdust Ventures and others. The upstart combines digital styling and online shopping for brides and their bridal parties. For users that still want a real-life experience, Brideside also has brick-and-mortar stores in Charlotte, Boston, Chicago, and New York. It also offers a try-at-home option.

According to a press release, the company’s total equity funding to date is $13.2 million, and this new capital will be used to build out more showrooms, and help it start selling actual bridal dresses, too. It also recently introduced Brideside-specific labels, which was designed by an in-house team that used “nearly 10M customer data points collected from the brand’s customers,” according to a press release.

The startup, which was founded in 2014 by and , is part of a growing number of companies incorporating technology into the wedding-planning process. For example, San Francisco’s is a startup that offers high-end South Asian dresses and outfits for all members of the bridal party. Similar to Brideside, Riya Collective offers a showroom experience for users that want help with styling. If a user wants to rent or sell their own designer indian clothes, Riya Collective offers credit.

There’s also Los Angeles-based that offers low-priced wedding dresses, touting lines like “shop $99 bridesmaid gowns.” It also offers groomsmen accessories. Neither of the aforementioned are known to be venture-backed.

There’s a couple of similarities in the above startups that stand out to me: an attempt to balance the charm of traditional wedding shopping with a punch at the logistical frustrations that come with it, whether it’s baffling pricing, or logistically getting all the people you love under one roof for a dress sizing at the same time.

And all of a sudden, couch-based direct-to-consumer sounds romantic.

Illustration:

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The new fund will invest similarly to its first fund: Seed and Series A checks into founders across various verticals such as retail, healthcare, personal finance, and food.

M13, not to be mistaken for , Microsoft’s venture arm, was founded in 2016 by brothers and

M13’s average check size from the second fund will total $4 million to $7 million, but the firm is reserving capital for seed and select later stage checks as well, Courtney Reum told Crunchbase News.

While venture capital firms are working harder than ever to be founder friendly, M13 comes from a unique position: the Los Angeles firm’s co-founders are previous entrepreneurs. The Reum brothers previously co-founded , a direct-to-consumer vodka spirit startup.

“We had made the mistakes, seen the missed opportunities and encountered the same milestones on the path ahead of them, so we were able to add value [for our portfolio companies] beyond our checks,” Courtney Reum told Crunchbase News. He added that along with Fund II, M13 added partners “who have operator and founder experience and most importantly deep founder empathy.”

The company added as a general partner, who looked after the investments of Branson. While all general partners are men, there are two women that have investing roles as partners on the team: Mary Carmen Gasco-Buisson, managing director from P&G Ventures and Christine Choi, who leads brand and communications for the firm.

Beyond capital, M13 claims to offer strategy, partnership, product development, and talent help among other services. In a release announcing the new fund, M13 states it will support portfolio companies with an in-house incubator, Launchpad, .

Launchpad is the firm’s venture studio that helps companies develop founding teams, as well as create partnerships and test ventures in-house, per the company.

Thus far, M13 has invested in 80 startups and had 16 exits, including and . Investments from the second fund include , , and .

Illustration: .

Update: Since publication, M13 has reached out to clarify that the two women on the team – Mary Carmen Gasco-Buisson and Christine Choi have investing roles as partners at M13. 

“No one is really building in an aspirational, modern, diverse and inclusive way, which is the way we feel that brands should be built,” Walsh said from the ASYSTEM beach house in Venice.

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ASYSTEM just raised a $4 million seed round from a crop of investors, including Capital, , . Board members include , former COO of .

The “betterment” startup offers a subscription-based daily vitamin supplement package for $75 a month and a 3-step skincare package for $45 a month. While ASYSTEM wants to “redefine men’s wellness” it’s hard to forget about the obvious, also venture-backed competition that has risen up recently.

A Crowded Space

Another company in the direct to consumer male wellness space is , a San Francisco startup that works on men wellness and has raised $197 million in known venture capital to date, according to its Crunchbase profile.

LeVine said that mainly focuses on Rogaine and Viagra through telemedicine. He pointed to two other brands, Roman, which sports “healthy hair starting at $0.53 a day” and Keeps, that also offers hair loss treatment and said they are not building products for “traditional” uses.

“When you build a proper brand, you put the sticker on your car,” he said. “I don’t know how many men would put a Hims sticker on their car; I’d wear an Asystems on a t-shirt.”

ASYSTEM’s “superhuman supplements” promise optimization in focus, stamina, energy, mood, and sex drive, according to a press release. , the blurry line between pharmaceuticals and supplements can be vague and potentially dangerous.

That said, Walsh said ASYSTEM worked with a range of individuals—scientists and a qualified nutritionist—to formulate the line.

The skincare uses fruit stem cells, avocado oils, and other ingredients, LeVine said. The entrepreneur started another fruit-based skin care product almost 15 years ago, which made its way into hotels and business airlines and used grape extracts from vineyards.

Along with building new products, the company will use the new funding to build out its experiential hub. Two weeks ago, along with the launch, ASYSTEM had a party in its beach house on Venice beach in California. Roughly 50 men from all ages showed up for a dinner, a beach workout, and guided meditation.

Walsh says the biggest surprise was that everyone was able to stay quiet for more than 10 minutes. It’s proof, he says, that “dialogue and camaraderie can come from this.”

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