Future of Sex
tagline
  • Remote Sex
  • Virtual Sex & Entertainment
  • Robots
  • Human Augmentation
  • Sex Tech
  • Dating & Relationships
  • Bizarre Bazaar 18+
  • Future of Sex Community
  • Remote Sex
  • Virtual Sex & Entertainment
  • Robots
  • Human Augmentation
  • Sex Tech
  • Dating & Relationships
  • Bizarre Bazaar 18+
  • Future of Sex Community
  • Securing Sextech: The Importance of Keeping Your Private Life—Private

  • Where the Boys Aren’t: Sextech, Star Power, and the Sound of Male Silence

  • The Real Deal: Deepfake Sex Sites Going, Going—Gone?

  • More To Love: North American, European, And Australian Polyamory Support Groups

  • A Day to Come: Imaging What Your Sexlife Might Be Like in the Not-To-Distant Future

  • Arms Enough for Love: The Erotic Possibilities Extra Limbs, More Thumbs May Hand Us

  • Hot Times Ahead: Tomorrow’s Male Contraceptives May Be More About Temperature, Less About Drugs

  • This Bot’s in Love With You—Sincerely or Merely a Revenue Strategy?

Future of Sex is supported by our readers. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Home > Sex Tech > Shunned by Investors, Startup Turns to Equity Crowdfunding So Couples Can Have More Sex

Sex Tech
Home›Sex Tech›Shunned by Investors, Startup Turns to Equity Crowdfunding So Couples Can Have More Sex

Shunned by Investors, Startup Turns to Equity Crowdfunding So Couples Can Have More Sex

By Jenna Owsianik
February 19, 2018
3506
3

The Pillow app gives lovers tools to rekindle passion.

Screenshot of Pillow App displaying their features with various app screens

The sex tech market is estimated to be worth $30 billion by 2020. Yet venture capitalists still shy away from funding startups in the space, forcing entrepreneurs to bypass traditional financing methods and get creative.

That’s why the team behind intimacy app Pillow launched an equity crowdfunding campaign on Wefunder last November. The platform makes it possible for anyone to invest and for sums as low as $100.

The goal is to raise between $110,000 and $333,0000, and in exchange for their money investors will receive future shares in the company. So far they’ve raised just over $4,000 from 13 investors.

Pillow, an education platform for couples available on iOS, currently offers audio-guided exercises developed with the help of licensed therapists. With the funds the company plans to add more than 100 new exercises, grow its subscribers by 6,000, and launch on Android.

The bumpy road so far

Going on Wefunder significantly widens the funding pool beyond the wealthy accredited investors that normally shun startups.

“Having conversations with VCs is difficult and the ones we have had they’re shy about it,” Pillow founder Darren Smith told Future of Sex.

Darren recalls one particular venture capitalist saying he couldn’t get involved. Some investors from his fund based were based in the Middle East and didn’t want to touch anything even tangentially related to sex for religious reasons.

Perhaps that was true or simply a convenient excuse. For the past couple years Darren and his partners have bootstrapped Pillow, unable to lure investors in the West either.

Originally based in the UK, Pillow also ran into barriers last year when it decided to move operations to the United States.

“Silicon Valley Bank just wouldn’t touch us because they called us adult entertainment and what we’re trying to create is bringing legitimate therapy practices,” Smith said.

Sexual healing for the masses

“We expect sex to just be easy and just to happen,” says relationship and psychosexual therapist Kate Moyle. “We just expect that we shouldn’t have to work at it.”

“But we have to work at everything else in life. So why would our sex lives be any different?”

Couples in long-term relationships visit Moyle at her London office, hoping to reignite their once passionate sex lives. Also a partner at Pillow, she works with experts to make sure the audio exercises are appropriate for therapists to recommend to clients.

According to Moyle, often her clients who are experiencing sexual dysfunction don’t have a physical problem.

“What they’re dealing with is anxiety, which is causing a physical symptom. A lot of how I work with people is encouraging them to get out of their heads and into their bodies, which is essentially what the Pillow episodes also do.”

Many couples can’t afford to see therapists or find the idea of visiting one daunting. At $6.99 a month, Moyle adds that the Pillow app increases access to therapist-approved techniques. The brief episodes are likely also more enjoyable and thus more effective than knowledge gleaned from books.

Log out to get it on

Technology also holds some blame for dwindling sex drives and lost intimacy in long-term relationships. Moyle says she learned the time couples had previously spent making love was now replaced with activities such as checking their phones or watching Netflix.

“You suddenly realize that half an hour is gone and you’ve both wasted it just flicking through Instagram,” says Moyle.

“That half an hour could have been time where you were connecting and feeling intimacy with eye contact or touch or conversation or communication. And those are the foundations and the building blocks of all relationships.”

So for the love of love, sex, excitement, and passion, the Pillow team aims to turn our overdependence on technology on its head. Instead of seeing how many likes their social media post receive, lovers can open the app, relax, and get back that loving feeling.

Image sources: Pillow

Jenna Owsianik

Jenna Owsianik is a Canadian journalist and sex tech expert. Since 2014 she has been Editor-in-Chief of FutureofSex.net, the world’s leading publication on how technology is changing human sexuality, today and tomorrow.

Jenna is the primary author of the Future of Sex Report (2016).

Her expertise covers state-of-the-art sex technologies and the major fields driving innovations in intimacy: robotics, virtual reality, remote sex (teledildonics), immersive adult entertainment, human augmentation, virtual sex, and sexual health.

A trained journalist with a Masters of Journalism from The University of British Columbia, Jenna’s reporting has appeared on Futurism.com, Al Jazeera English, CTV British Columbia online, CBS Sunday Morning, CBS 60 Minutes, Global News, and CKNW Radio in Canada and the United States.

As a sex tech industry consultant, she is especially passionate about helping companies deliver accessible services and products to people with disabilities and other underserved communities.

Jenna also runs the sites SexforEveryBody.com, a sex-positive, body-positive online magazine that promotes inclusive sex education; and DisabledSexGuide.com, an adult resource on sex, disability, and erotica.

In 2013, Jenna won two Canadian Online Publishing Awards for her work on The Pain Project, a multimedia site on global access to palliative care.

She won second place at the 2011 Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism’s Public Health category for her participation in the documentary Freedom From Pain.

Jenna has an Honors BA in Women’s Studies and Feminist Research as well as a French minor from The University of Western Ontario. She spent a year studying at L’Université Lumière Lyon 2 in Lyon, France.
Previous Article

World’s First Sex Toy Line for Trans ...

Next Article

3 Cult Films Showing Mind-boggling Futuristic Sex ...

Related articles More from author

  • RobotsSex TechVirtual Sex & EntertainmentImmersive Entertainment

    Four Unexpected Reasons to Worry—or Not—About AI-Generated Adult Content

    May 13, 2024
    By M. Christian
  • Ann Summers
    Sex Tech

    Ann Summers’ Sex Worker Directed Campaign Puts Women’s Pleasure First

    September 18, 2019
    By Eva Duncanson
  • Cindy Gallop
    Sex Tech

    Cindy Gallop: Investors Must Forget Fears of Booming Sex Tech Industry

    February 17, 2016
    By Future of Sex
  • Two hands shown with one typing on a keyboard and the other holding a Visa card.
    Sex TechVirtual Sex & Entertainment

    Sex Tech News: March’s Funding Frenzy, MindGeek’s Acquisition and Financial Discrimination of the Adult Industry

    April 11, 2023
    By Carolyn Stransky
  • Dating & RelationshipsSex Tech

    Love Bytes: Sex Therapists Weigh in on AI Relationships

    March 23, 2024
    By A.R. Marsh, Ed.D.
  • Audio Erotica Market
    Sex Tech

    Growing Audio Erotica Market Is Busting Gender Myths

    January 13, 2020
    By Margaret Andersen

Leave a reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

  • OhMiBod's blueMotion vibrator and remote app makes staying intimate with long-distances lovers possible.
    Remote Sex

    Control Your Lover’s Vibrator with OhMiBod’s New Remote App

  • Sex Tech

    Winning Love by Daylight: Sailor Moon Becomes Safe Sex Advocate

  • unbound sex toys
    Sex Tech

    Beauty Will Blend Even More into the Sexual Wellness Industry

Virtual Lust is a 3D interactive sex game.
3DXChat
Discover the best virtual sex parties and 3D sex worlds.
  • TOP REVIEWS

  • Multiplayer Online Sex Games

    Review of the Best Massively Multiplayer Online Sex Games

    0
  • Harmony ai sex doll from RealDoll

    State of the Sexbot Market: The World’s Best Sex Robot and AI Sex Doll Companies ...

  • Realistic Sex Games

    Review of the Best Sex Games and Most Realistic Sex Simulators [UPDATED]

    0
  • Screenshot of a sexbot from adult entertainment game

    The Best Adult Games on Steam [UPDATED]

  • Screenshot of FeelConnect app future of interactivity intimacy available on Apple and Google Store

    The Best Sex Game Apps for Couples [UPDATED]

Fantasy sex game Dream Sex World lets you explore your wildest desires.
Multiplayer sex world Red Light Center continues to impress with its massive userbase and incredible sex graphics.
A blonde and light-skinned love doll face sppears next to the text Go now realdollxthe future is real.

Like Us on Facebook

Newsletter Subscription

Sign up for our monthly newsletter sharing the very best of the future of sex from our publication and others across the web.

DreamSexWorld offers a stunning XXX 3D world filled with incredibly interactive erotic experiences.

Like Us On Facebook

Facebook Pagelike Widget

RLC_ad_v2

Tweets by @FutureofSex
Future of Sex Report

Follow us

  • Home
  • About
  • ADVERTISE
  • Contribute
  • Story Ideas
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
© 2011 - 2022 Future Exploration Network
This website or its third-party tools use cookies to improve user experience and track affiliate sales. To learn more about why we need to use cookies, please refer to the Privacy Policy.

By clicking the agree button or continuing to browse through the website, you agree to the use of cookies. Accept Privacy Policy
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
SAVE & ACCEPT