Yes, Brandless is cruelty free.
While Brandless and its products are not 100% vegan, they are cruelty free as they do not do any product testing on animals.
In February of 2020, Brandless did announce that they were shutting its doors for good, citing a "fiercely competitive retail market."
Brandless laid off most of its employees, with the ones remaining solely there to manage the open orders. However, the company managed to relaunch with the help of investment firm Clarke Capital Partners and installed Cydni Tetro as the new CEO of Brandless. With new partners, and under new leadership, Brandless raised $118 million in debt and equity in August 2021, effectively bringing the once shuttered company back onto its feet.
Brandless is cheaper than many of their competitors because of two main reasons:
One, they conduct business directly with their suppliers, cutting out the middlemen and the costs associated with having an intermediary Two, they sell most of their products online, direct-to-consumers, allowing them to forego the additional markups that inevitably come with the greater overheard costs of brick and mortar businesses.
Yes, Brandless is a legitimate company.
Founded by Ido Leffler and Tina Sharkey, they raised $16 million in funding in November 2016 and by the time of their launch in July 2017 had received a total of $50 million in venture capital. By 2019, Brandless had raised a total $292.5 million in venture capital. It is a mission-driven company that manufactures and sells a range of products that are created, packaged, and sold for the expressed purpose of being better for consumers and the environment.