Beauty M&A in 2023 is already off to a hot start.
A flurry of deals kickstarted the year despite concerns the U.S. could tip into recession. Procter & Gamble signed a deal to acquire Mielle, a Black-founded textured hair care brand, for an undisclosed sum, while L’Oréal’s venture capital fund BOLD has been active, making minority investments in French metaverse developer Digital Village and temporary tattoo-maker Prinker Korea Inc.
Here is a list of all the beauty acquisitions and investments so far in 2023:
October
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L’Oréal has sold green beauty brand Sanoflore to French investment fund Ekkio Capital and Sergio Calandri, Sanoflore’s new chief executive officer, who is also the founder of Inula Group, which has other natural product brands.
SkinSpirit acquired Truth + BeautyMedspa in Roslyn Heights, New York.
September
L’Oréal has agreed to take a minority stake in Shinehigh Innovation, a Chinese innovation-led biotech company specializing in supramolecular chemistry.
Pierre Fabre Laboratoires has taken a minority stake in MiYé, the French skin care and dietary supplements brand focusing on women’s hormonal balance and well-being.
The Estée Lauder Cos.‘ investment arm, New Incubation Ventures, has taken a minority stake in Code Mint, a Chinese clean beauty label.
Customized beauty company Proven has raised a $12.2 million Series A from existing investors, with NewH2 Ventures acting as lead investor. Proven, which already raised around $9 million in previous rounds, operates two brands: Proven Skincare, the AI-powered, personalized skin care brand launched in 2019, and Noteworthy, a personalized fragrance line that launched earlier this year.
Celebrity aesthetician Angela Caglia’s namesake brand has received funding from former Sephora chief executive officer Martin Brok. Terms were not disclosed.
L Catterton has taken a minority stake in Maria Nil, in order to step up the Swedish sustainable professional hair care brand’s growth and international expansion.
Eighth Day received a minority investment from L Catterton.
August
E.l.f. Beauty signed an agreement to acquire Naturium for $355 million. It’s part of a broader strategy to give the company cachet in skin, which could comprise 18 percent of retail sales after the sale is completed.
Coty renewed its license with Adidas. It has partnered with the activewear giant since the ‘90s and introduced its first product in the U.S. in 1999 with the Adidas Moves for Him scent.
American Exchange Group has acquired HatchCollective as it looks for a bigger slice of the beauty and personal care market. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Personal care brand Evolvetogether, launched by Cynthia Sakai during the pandemic with masks that were worn by the likes of Justin Bieber and Vice President Kamala Harris, has secured funding from some well-known names in the beauty industry. The seed round was led by True Beauty Ventures, with participation from G9 Ventures and Gregg Renfrew, the founder of Beautycounter. Terms of the investment were not disclosed, but sources told WWD Evolvetogether is on track to hit $10 million in sales.
Kao Corp. has signed an agreement to acquire Australian sun care brand Bondi Sands, as the beauty category heats up.
July
Irene Forte Skincare has secured a minority investment from L Catterton. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
GlossGenius, a software platform for beauty salons, has raised $28 million in series C funding. The equity round was led by L Catterton Growth Fund, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners and Imaginary Ventures at a $510 million valuation.
Hair care line Bread Beauty Supply has raised a multimillion-dollar seed funding round, led by Fearless Fund, a venture capital fund focused on supporting women of color entrepreneurs. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Coty sold a 3.6 percent stake in Wella to investment firm IGF Wealth Management, with the cash proceeds to be used to pay down debt.
June
OurX, a direct-to-consumer platform with the mission of creating a new standard for tightly textured hair and scalp care via education, personalized regimens and its own product line, raised a $2.5 million seed round led by Reign Ventures.
Kering Beauté acquired Creed, the high-end niche fragrance house that’s controlled by BlackRock Long Term Private Capital Europe and the current chairman Javier Ferrán. Financial terms of the all-cash transaction were not disclosed, but industry sources estimate it was for approximately $1.5 billion.
Curio Brands, the parent company of Thymes and Capri Blue, acquired Otherland, the candle company founded in 2017 by Abigail Cook Stone, which is distributed in Sephora, Nordstrom and Anthropologie.
May
Skin Pharm, an aesthetic skin care practice that has its own product line, received a minority investment from Prelude Growth Partners. The $15 million investment from the female-founded growth equity firm will fund the company’s clinic expansion plans nationwide and contribute to ongoing product development, both parties said in a statement.
Natura & Co.’s venture capital fund Fable Investments has increased its stake in Perfumer H, the fragrance brand of perfumer Lyn Harris, in order to help extend its product line, bolster its management team and support expansion in Asia.
Juliette Has a Gun has raised a new round of funding, with Cathay Capital private equity group raising its stake in the niche French fragrance brand and Weinberg Capital Partners taking a minority share.
FemTec Health’s Birchbox assets were purchased by Retention Brands through an assignment for the benefit of creditors.
Virtue Labs has raised a new financing round led by Clearasil and Just for Men owner Combe, its majority shareholder.
April
Henkel AG has finalized the sale of its business activities in Russia to a consortium of local financial investors for 54 billion rubles, or $689.6 million. The German maker of Schwarzkopf, Dial and Diadermine products had announced on April 20 its signing of an agreement to sell that activity, following Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
Henry Rose, the genderless fine fragrance brand founded by Michelle Pfeiffer, has gained a Series A investment led by Sandbridge Capital, its first external investment since its launch in 2019. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Oprah Winfrey has invested an undisclosed amount in Dr. Barbara Sturm’s skin care brand.
Oddity, the parent company of Il Makiage and Spoiled Child, has acquired Boston-based biotechnology startup Revela for $76 million. With the acquisition and an additional $25 million investment, the company will establish Oddity Labs in Boston.
Ceremonia, the Latinx clean hair care brand launched in 2020, has raised $10 million to support its recent expansion to more than 500 Sephora stores with a series A investment round led by Sandbridge Capital.
L Catterton is betting once again on the founders of Tula Skincare. The private equity firm has just made a “significant” growth investment in color cosmetics brand Dibs Beauty, launched in September 2021 by Tula Skincare founders Ken Landis (who also cofounded Bobbi Brown Cosmetics) and Dan Reich, with Austin, Texas-based influencer Courtney Shields and former chief operating officer of A-Rod Corp Jeff Lee. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Famille C Participations, the Courtin family’s holding company, has taken a majority stake in Pai Skincare to help step up the brand’s growth and turn it into selective distribution’s clean skin care leader.
Abeo, the digital beauty sampling platform, has a new owner. The company, which launched in 2020 as a part of Arcade Beauty, has been acquired by Sampler, which provides users with free, personalized samples across categories like food and beauty. The acquisition marks a push in the latter category.
Pierre Fabre announced it had acquired Même, a dermocosmetics line formulated specifically for women with sensitive skin due to cancer treatments.
L’Oréal invested in DSG Consumer Partners IV, the fourth fund of Singapore-based venture capital DSGCP, focused on growing early-stage consumer brand startups across Southeast Asia and India
L’Oréal has signed an agreement to acquire Aesop, the Australian luxury personal care company, from Natura & Co. The proposed transaction values Aesop at an enterprise value of more than $2.5 billion.
TrueNose, a medical aesthetics brand that specializes in non-surgical nose jobs founded by president Menaka Sampath, has been acquired by Aesthetic Holdings, a Denver-based medical aesthetics company with multiple medspa subsidiaries.
March
New Incubation Ventures, the early-stage, strategic investing and incubation arm of The Estée Lauder Cos. Inc., has taken a minority stake in Vyrao, the British fragrance brand that promises far more than pleasing scents.
Matter of Fact has closed its second round of funding, to the tune of $6 million. The brand, founded by Paul Baek in 2021, closed a round of additional funding with participation from Horizon Ventures and Cowboy Ventures, in addition to James and Nicky Hilton Rothschild, as well as Birchbox cofounder Hayley Barna. That brings Matter of Fact’s total funding to $16 million. The company raised $10 million in seed funding in 2021.
Natural skin care brand True Botanicals has gained a series B investment from San Francisco-based growth equity firm NextWorld Evergreen. Although terms of the deal were not disclosed, WWD last year reported that True Botanicals had tapped investment bank Moelis & Company to evaluate deal options, with sources noting at the time that the brand was projecting sales of around $50 million for 2022.
L’Oréal has invested in the Geno-led initiative centered on developing, producing and commercializing biotechnology-based alternatives to key beauty product ingredients. L’Oréal, which made its investment through BOLD, the group’s corporate venture fund, did not disclose terms of the investment.
Robertet Group has acquired Aroma Esencial, a Spanish company that specializes in processing natural aroma-related products, such as vetiver, patchouli, cedar and ylang-ylang.
February
Live Tinted has closed a Series A fundraising round of $10 million led by Monogram Capital Partners. Other investors are Unilever Ventures, Devonshire Partners and Silas Capital. The beauty brand has secured $15 million to date.
The Beauty Health Company, owner of Hydrafacial, has agreed to acquire SkinStylus, an FDA-cleared microneedling device. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Beauty Health said that upon successful integration of SkinStylus into its portfolio, the company expects upside from the acquisition in 2024 and beyond.
Givaudan, the world’s largest fragrance and flavors supplier, is acquiring certain cosmetic ingredients from California-based biotechnology player Amyris, including its sugarcane-derived squalane, a sustainable alternative to that found in deep-sea shark livers. Amyris will continue to manufacture ingredients for Givaudan to use in cosmetics. Givaudan will become the commercialization partner for future sustainable beauty ingredients.
Sustainable beauty brand Caliray has raised a Series A round. The California-based brand launched in 2021 by Urban Decay founder Wende Zomnir has received new financing led by True Beauty Ventures, the early stage beauty and wellness focused investment fund run by Rich Gersten and Cristina Nuñez.
IFF has entered into an agreement to sell its Flavor Specialty Ingredients (FSI) business to UK-based private equity firm Exponent for $220 million in cash proceeds. FSI reports through IFF’s Scent division and is a manufacturer of synthetic and natural base aroma chemicals used in the flavor market. Cash proceeds from the transaction, net of taxes and expenses, will be used to reduce outstanding debt, IFF said.
Unilever has sold the Suave business in North America to Yellow Wood Partners, a private equity firm. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Outside of the U.S. and Canada, Unilever will maintain ownership of the brand.
Miley Cyrus has invested in self-tanning brand Dolce Glow, partnering with founder Isabel Vita.
Symrise took a minority interest in Synergio, an Israeli biotech company that specializes in the development of natural and sustainable solutions to be used in advanced plant-based technology destined for consumer goods products. Symrise did not give financial terms of the deal, but said it has the possibility to acquire a majority stake of Synergio’s share capital in the future.
January
Australian scalp care brand Straand secured $2 million pre-seed investment from Unilever Ventures.
Makeup by Mario received a $40 million minority growth investment from Provenance, a consumer-focused private investment firm, and Silas Capital, an emerging growth equity and venture capital firm.
Thirteen Lune, the inclusive beauty platform founded by Nyakio Grieco and Patrick Herning, raised $8 million in a seed plus investment round, with new participation from The BrainTrust Fund.
AS Beauty, a joint venture between Alan and Joey Shamah, the founders of E.l.f. Beauty, and the Azrak family, who previously ran and sold a pajama business, has added the skin-focused, spa-inspired Bliss World brand to its roster as it looks to diversify its portfolio into skin care. Its current brand lineup consists of Laura Geller Beauty, Julep Beauty, Mally Beauty and Cover FX. It was previously owned by L Catterton.
Glamsquad, the digital platform that allows users to connect with beauty professionals like hairstylists, makeup artists and nail technicians, received a minority investment from Boathouse Capital.
Coty Inc. and Jil Sander renewed their licensing agreement. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Coty in a statement called it a “long-running partnership between the two companies.”
German fragrance and flavors supplier Symrise took part in a Series A funding round of Ignite Venture Studios, which creates and invests in start-up ventures linked to beauty, health and wellness. It is based in the U.S. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.
P&G Beauty has acquired Mielle Organics, a Black-founded textured hair care brand, for an undisclosed sum, with the founders stressing that the deal will increase availability of products, and that there are no plans to change formulas.
American packaging manufacturer GPA Global acquired Cosfibel Group, a France-based maker of luxury promotional packaging, luxury gifting and merchandising solutions. Financial terms of the deal, which gives GPA a strong European footprint, were not disclosed.
L’Oréal took a minority stake in temporary tattoo-maker Prinker Korea Inc. through its corporate venture fund BOLD.
Glowbar, known for its 30-minute, $65 facial, has received a $10 million Series A funding. The round was led by Peterson Partners, a Salt Lake City-based firm whose investments have included Allbirds, Solidcore, Bonobos, Rails Clothing and Madison Reed.
L’Oréal’s venture capital fund BOLD and the British Fashion Council were among participants in a $4 million funding round for French metaverse developer Digital Village.