Harry's

Harry's

Harry's was founded in 2013 by Jeff Raider and Andy Katz-Mayfield, veterans of Charlesbank Capital Partners and Bain & Co., respectively. The two launched the company with a clear premise: the men's razor market, dominated by Gillette, and, to a lesser extent, Schick, operated as a high-margin duopoly with little incentive to lower prices. Harry's entered with a subscription model that shipped German-engineered blades directly to consumers for $2 per cartridge — roughly half the going rate for a Gillette Fusion refill at the time. The company's strategy rests on vertical integration. In January 2014, just 10 months after launch, Harry's acquired Feintechnik, a 94-year-old blade factory in Eisfeld, Germany, for a reported $100 million (per The New York Times, 2014). The deal gave Harry's ownership of the precision manufacturing required for high-quality cartridge razors — an infrastructure barrier that had historically protected incumbents. The brand has since expanded into adjacent categories including body wash, shave cream, and face lotion, distributing through its own website as well as mass retail partners including Target and Walmart. Harry's operates in North America and, through the factory, maintains a manufacturing presence in Germany. Harry's has disclosed raising over $600 million in debt and equity. Backers include Tiger Global Management, Alliance Consumer Growth, and Macquarie Capital. In May 2019, Edgewell Personal Care — owner of Schick and Wilkinson Sword — agreed to acquire Harry's for $1.37 billion in cash and stock. The FTC sued to block the merger in February 2020, arguing it would eliminate a critical price disruptor; Edgewell abandoned the deal the same month (per CNBC, February 2020). Harry's subsequently raised a $155 million Series E at a $1.7 billion valuation, reportedly reaching profitability that year (per Bloomberg, January 2021). The company has not disclosed a team size, but its key offices remain in New York and San Francisco. Harry's structural differentiator is its manufacturing moat. Owning Feintechnik means the company controls its supply chain from blade grinding to packaging, a posture that makes it operationally closer to a consumer packaged goods manufacturer like Church & Dwight than to a typical venture-backed e-commerce brand. That asset gave Harry's a viable standalone path after the failed Edgewell merger, allowing it to manufacture, rather than simply market, its way back to growth.