Beauty Rolodex: European Investors
Europe-based beauty investors continue to multiply in the beauty arena as a host of new brands increasingly come to market. Following are some key players — venture capital, private equity and strategics’ investment arms — on the Continent and in the U.K., listed in alphabetical order.
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360 Capital
Headquarters: Paris and Milan
Current Beauty Investment: 900.care
Deal Size: In pre-seed and seed, it invests initial ticket ranging from 150,000 euros to 2 million euros. In series A, it invests between 2 million euros and 6 million euros.
Key Player: Emanuele Levi, general partner
Active Partners
Headquarters: London
Current Beauty Investments: Facetheory and Vieve
Deal Size: Invest 200,000 pounds to 750,000 pounds in seed rounds and 5 million pounds to 15 million pounds in growth rounds.
Key Player: Jason Mahendran, partner
Alven Capital Partners
Headquarters: Paris
Current Beauty Investments: Joone, Planity, Typology
Deal Size: Invests between 1 million euros and 10 million euros, mainly in seed and series A1 rounds.
Key Player: Guillaume Aubin, managing partner, and François Meteyer, partner
Auréa Group
Headquarters: Paris, London and New York
Current Beauty Investment: Dcypher
Deal Size: Invests in companies with sales of between 2 million euros and 20 million euros.
Key Player: Karim Abbas, founding partner
Balderton Capital
Headquarters: London
Current Beauty Investment: Beauty Pie, THG
Deal Size: Dedicated early stage and growth funds — writing checks from $1 million to $60 million per round.
Key Player: Laura McGinnis, associate
BlueGem Capital Partners
Headquarters: London
Current Beauty Investments: QMS Medicosmetics, Iconic London, BeautyNova Group, Dr. Vranjes Firenze, Ecooking
Deal Size: Invests 30 million euros to 70 million euros
Key Players: Mathieu Develay, partner, and Constantin Rojahn, investment director
BOLD (Business Opportunities for L’Oréal Development)
Headquarters: Clichy, France
Current Beauty Investments: Documents, Functionalab Group, Sparty, Prinker, Salon Interactive, Digital Village, Replika Software, Gjosa, Microphyt, Carbios, Global Bioenergies
Deal Size: Stage-agnostic, with focus on series A and B, flexible deal size
Key Players: Samantha Etienne and Presca Ahn, investors
Citizen Capital
Headquarters: Paris
Current Beauty-Related Investments: Hub.Cycle, What Matters
Deal Size: Invests between 1 million euros and 18 million euros.
Key Player: Diane Roujou de Bonbée, investment director
Eurazeo Brands
Headquarters: New York and Paris
Current Beauty Investments: Nest New York, Beekman 1802, Gisou, Pangaea
Deal Size: Invests 15 million euros to 100 million euros, minority and majority stakes.
Key Players: Jill Granoff, chief executive officer (N.Y.); Adrianne Shapira, head of North America (N.Y.), Laurent Droin, head of EMEA (Paris)
Eutopia
Headquarters: Paris, New York, Madrid and Amsterdam
Current Beauty Investments: Oh My Cream!, Laboté, Même Cosmetics, Merci Handy
Deal Size: Invests in seed and series A stage in rounds from 1 million euros to 8 million euros.
Key Player: Camille Kriebitzsch, partner and cofounder
Experienced Capital
Headquarters: Paris
Current Beauty Investments: L:a Bruket, Oh My Cream!
Deal Size: Invests in brands with enterprise value between 10 million euros and 100 million euros, and equity tickets between 10 million euros and 30 million euros.
Key Player: Alban Gérard, partner
Fable Investments (Natura & Co.’s VC fund)
Headquarters: Luxembourg
Current Beauty Investments: Perfumer H, Maude, Stratia, Loli Beauty
Deal Size: Invests from 2 million euros to 10 million euros.
Key Player: Thomas Buisson, managing director
Famille C Participations (Courtin family holding company)
Headquarters: Paris
Current Beauty Investments: Ilia, Pai Skincare, Ceremonia
Deal Size: Invests without constraint of company size, investment phase or exit horizon, in majority or minority.
Key Player: Prisca Courtin, chief executive officer
Firstminute Capital
Headquarters: London
Current Beauty Investments: Typology, Asystem, Kyra
Deal Size: Equity tickets run between $1 million and $5 million.
Key Player: Brent Hoberman and Spencer Crawley, cofounders and managing partners
Founders Future
Headquarters: Paris
Current Beauty Investments: Epycure, Dr. Elsa Jungman, Jho
Deal Size: Invests in seed and series A rounds
Key Player: Thomas Bajas, principal
Grazia Equity
Headquarters: Stuttgart, Germany
Current Beauty Investment: Gitti Conscious Beauty
Deal Size: Investment usually starts at around 1 million euros and ranges from 5 million euros to 10 million euros during a company’s lifecycle
Key Player: Jochen Klüeppel, partner
Impala
Headquarters: Paris
Current Beauty Investments: Augustinus Bader, Laboratoire Native (including Roger & Gallet, Lierac, Phyto and Jowaé), P&B Group
Deal Size: Has taken stakes upward of 20 percent.
Key Player: Vincent Revol, associate director
Index Ventures
Headquarters: London, New York and San Francisco
Current Beauty Investments: Glossier, Beauty Pie, Josh Wood Colour, Beautystack, Boulevard
Deal Size: Invests from seed to growth rounds through to IPO, with check sizes ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to $80 million. Seven out of 10 of Index’s initial investments are seed or series A.
Key Player: Danny Rimer, partner
IRIS Ventures
Headquarters: Barcelona and London
Current Beauty Investment: Olistic
Deal Size: Leads or co-leads series A investments and co-investments in later-stage rounds
Key Player: Montse Suárez, founder and managing partner
Karot Capital
Headquarters: Paris
Current Beauty Investments: Sevessence, WAAM
Deal Size: Invests first 300,000 euros to 2 million euros as a minority shareholder
Key Player: Charles-Antoine Morand, partner
L Catterton Europe
Headquarters: London, Paris and Milan
Current Beauty Investment: Pibiplast
Deal Size: Invests in middle-market growth companies in Western Europe between 30 million euros and 100 million euros.
Key Player: Jean-Philippe Barade, partner
LBO France
Headquarters: Paris
Current Beauty Investment: Payot
Deal Size: Primary or secondary LBO with an equity ticket of between 10 million euros and 25 million euros for companies with an enterprise value of 25 million euros to 100 million euros.
Key Player: Emmanuel Fiorentino, investment director LBO Small Cap
Made in Italy Fund
Headquarters: Luxembourg
Current Beauty Investment: Rougj
Deal Size: Invests in companies with sales mainly ranging from 10 million euros to 50 million euros.
Key Players: Alessandro Binello and Walter Ricciotti, founders and chief executive officers of parent company Quadrivio Group
Manzanita Capital
Headquarters: London
Current Beauty Investments: Diptyque, Malin + Goetz, SpaceNK, Susanne Kaufmann, Glossier, Unbound, A-Frame, SuperOrdinary, Sam McKnight, Byredo
Deal Size: It makes acquisitions, while its venture portfolio makes early-stage investments, typically in the first or second round of fundraising. Manzanita can lead, co-lead or co-invest in companies.
Key Player: Harry Richards, investment director
NEO Investment Partners
Headquarters: London
Current Beauty Investments: Miller Harris, Victoria Beckham Beauty
Deal Size: Invests between 10 million euros and 30 million euros in companies with sales of 20 million euros to 40 million euros
Key Player: David Belhassen, founder and managing partner
Octopus Ventures
Headquarters: London
Current Beauty Investments: Elvie, Skin & Me
Deal Size: Invests in pre-seed rounds of about 100,000 pounds from the pan-European fund, and seed to series B rounds, starting at investments of 1 million pounds.
Key Players: Kirsten Connell and Maria Rotilu, investors
Ohana & Co. (Incubator)
Headquarters: Paris, New York and Los Angeles
Current Beauty Investments: Fré, WhatMatters, Face D, Respire, Kos Paris, Angela Caglia, My Lubie
Deal Size: Invests in early-stage companies between 500,000 euros and 5 million euros
Key Player: Karine Ohana, managing partner
Obratori (L’Occitane Group’s corporate VC fund)
Headquarters: Marseille, France
Current Beauty Investments: Le Rouge Français, Eclo, Abyssea, InHairCare, Medene, Paper Cosmetics
Deal Size: Invests solo or in co-investments with tickets between 100,000 euros to 300,000 euros. Invests in early-stage start-ups with a PoC, MVP and 1st market traction. Invests in minority stakes between 5 percent and 20 percent. It does not reinvest in subsequent rounds.
Key Player: Delphine Oung, investment manager, and Arthur Vachelard, VC analyst
Piper Private Equity
Headquarters: London
Current Beauty Investments: Neom, Wild Nutrition
Deal Size: Invests 5 million pounds to 25 million pounds in brands with at least 5 million pounds in sales
Key Player: Dan Stern, partner
Raise Investissement
Headquarters: Paris
Current Beauty Investments: Blissim, Clinique des Champs-Elysées
Deal Size: Invests minority stakes of 10 million euros and 50 million euros in French companies with sales of 50 to 500 million euros
Key Player: Alexandre Dupont, co-head
Silverwood Brands
Headquarters: London
Current Beauty Investments: Balmonds, Nailberry, Steamcream, Cigarro
Deal Size: 2 million pounds to 500 million pounds
Key Players: Paul Hodgins, non-executive director, and Andrew Tone, executive director
Unilever Ventures
Headquarters: London and Mumbai
Current Beauty Investments: Be For Beauty (The Inkey List), Beauty Bakery, BYBI, Exponent Beauty, ESQA, Frank Body, Kopari, Live Tinted, Minimalist, Pangaea, Perelel, Plant People, Plum, Rael, Sachajuan, Saie, Sentials, The Nue Co., Thesis, Thryve, Trinny London, True Botanicals, UOMA, Volition, Straand, Womaness, Youvit
Deal Size: It offers flexible capital, investing from $500,000 to $15 million, seed to series B rounds.
Key Player: Olivier Garel, managing partner, and partners Rachel Harris, Pawan Chaturvedi, Anna Ohlsson-Baskerville and Stephen Willson
Vaultier7
Headquarters: London
Current Beauty Investments: Gisou, Joone, 111Skin
Deal Size: Invests 2 million pounds to 10 million pounds in companies with sales of 3 million pounds to 15 million pounds
Key Player: Anna Sweeting, founder
White Star Capital
Headquarters: London
Current Beauty Investment: 900.care
Deal Size: Series A to series B
Key Player: Matthieu Lattes, general partner
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