Undercover Colors, the Raleigh-based startup that seeks to fight date rape, recently landed former Sprout Pharmaceuticals CEO Cindy Whitehead as an advisor and investor. Now the company has made a bigger funding breakthrough.
Launched by a team of NCSU students in 2014, Undercover Colors has raised just over $3 million in capital, according to an SEC filing made on Friday.
Whitehead, who sold Sprout for $1 billion to Valeant, committed to being an advisor to Undercover Colors in March. Whitehead recently launched a new company, The Pink Ceiling, through which she said she would make investments and also look to act as an advisor.
She’s listed on the SEC filing as a director of the firm as well and told Fortune in April that she was an investor.
“I understand how misunderstandings can become truths,” said Whitehead, referring to some of the negative media coverage of Addyi, the female sexual enhancement drug developed by Sprout. “I asked them, ‘How can I help?’” She was drawn to the idea of a product that could become “a real solution to a real problem faced by women.”
Also in a director’s role is Celesti Lutrario, an executive at Burt’s Bees, who had already been associated with the firm.
According to the filing, Undercover Colors raised $3.002 million in a round targeted at $4.5 million.
Some 15 investors participated.
It’s by far the biggest fund-raiser to date for the venture, which raised $190,000 in a targeted round of $1.2 million in 2015. The entrepreneurs also raised $300,000 in 2014.
Serial angel investor David Gardner is also a backer of Undercover Colors.
The company received a wide range of national media attention from the Huffington Post to the Daily Mail, including some criticism.
Co-founder Tyler Confre-Maloney has said the technology, which reveals the presence of a drug when a nail with the polish is dipped in a drink. The company began testing in a number of beverages and situations last summer.
Ankesh Madan, Stephen Gray and Tasso Von Windheim are the other co-founders.
