Colgate to invest in online startup

Colgate-Palmolive Co. is turning to an online startup to help it sell products like toothpaste through a home-subscription service, the latest experiment by a big household-products maker to cut out traditional retailers as sales shift online.

Colgate, which has been selling its namesake product since 1873, is close to a deal to acquire a minority stake in Hubble, people familiar with the matter say. The two-year-old New York company currently sells contact lenses in brightly coloured boxes online.