maude

maude is a modern intimacy company founded in 2018 by Éva Goicochea and headquartered in Brooklyn, New York [9]. It sells lubricants, devices, condoms and supplements alongside a body and scent range, and positions itself as a destigmatised approach to sexual wellness aimed at all people. The company describes itself as "a modern company built on quality, simplicity, and inclusivity" [1]. Its design-led body care — pH-balanced body washes, mineral bath salts, body and massage oils and scented candles — is the part of the catalogue that overlaps with conventional beauty.

The brand remains active and growing. It has raised roughly $13.3 million across three funding rounds and, by 2024, reported distribution in dozens of countries through both direct sales and retail partners [8].

maude was founded by Éva Goicochea, who was born in New Mexico and raised in California and Michigan. Before starting the company she worked as a legislative aide in healthcare and spent about a decade with what she describes as forward-thinking companies. According to the brand, she launched maude after concluding that the sexual health industry was outdated and showing no sign of change, and set out to build "a brand for all people." The company traces its founding to 2018; a 2020 press release dates the launch more precisely to April 2018 [9].

From the outset the company framed intimacy as a routine part of wellbeing rather than a taboo. In interviews Goicochea has argued that "people need vibrators," that condoms are central to sexual health, and that lubricant is used throughout adult life — a plain-spoken framing she has linked to the observation that "people want to talk about sex" [7].

maude began as a direct-to-consumer brand and built early distribution through partnerships with design-focused retailers and hotels [7]. In November 2020, the actor Dakota Johnson joined as Co-Creative Director and investor; at that point the company reported $3.7 million in total seed financing [9]. A $5.8 million Series A round followed in 2021.

The brand has since expanded into wider retail. According to industry coverage, it became the first sexual-wellness brand featured in Sephora's US stores, and is also carried by Nordstrom, Revolve and others; by 2024 it reported reaching 33 countries through direct sales and 16 through retail [8]. In 2023 its work was included in a Museum of Sex exhibit.

maude is a privately held, venture-backed company; no parent company is recorded. Its disclosed investors include True Beauty Ventures, Endeavor and angel investors such as Dakota Johnson and Everlane founder Michael Preysman [8].

The company's stated view is that "intimacy is essential to wellbeing" and "should be simple, inclusive, and built into everyday life—no stigma, no extremes, just the basics done beautifully" [2]. It organises its identity around three values — quality, simplicity and inclusivity — and uses the tagline "modern intimacy, shared" [1]. Its products are designed in-house, and the brand emphasises body-safe materials and a deliberately non-explicit, gender-neutral presentation. Industry coverage describes its audience as close to an even gender split across age groups and places the brand within prestige beauty rather than the traditional adult market.

A medical advisory board of obstetrics-gynaecology, urology, sexual-medicine, physical-therapy and somatic-sexology specialists guides the company's product approach.

maude's beauty-adjacent range centres on bath and body care. It includes Wash, a pH-balanced body wash and bubble bath sold in scented and fragrance-free versions; Soak, a line of mineral bath salts; Oil No. 0, an organic body and massage oil; Soothe, an ingrown-hair oil; and Burn, a scented massage candle. The line extends into fragrance through scents such as Scent No. 3, built around eucalyptus, sandalwood and vetiver [10]. Hero ingredients cited across the body range include organic aloe, jojoba oil, sea salt and vitamin E.

Within the company's core intimacy catalogue, Shine is a water-based lubricant formulated with organic aloe. Its product page lists it as vegan and "cruelty-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, hormone-free, glycerin-free, paraben-free," made in the USA, and FDA 510(k) cleared for internal use [5]. The brand states that its products are tested to meet FDA, California Proposition 65, Sephora Clean and IFRA standards [6].

maude has been covered widely in lifestyle and beauty press. Vogue described it as "the woman-run sex line promising good vibes for all," Women's Health called it a wellness brand whose "products are natural and smell fantastic," and Forbes wrote in 2022 that the company was "redefining the sex essentials industry for modern consumers" [4]. In 2024 it was named to BeautyMatter's Future50 list, which reported that the company held 13 industry awards over five years [8].

maude is active. As of 2024 it was venture-funded, expanding its retail footprint and continuing to launch products and attract press coverage, with industry sources projecting annual revenue in the range of $10–20 million [8].