Carlyle Group acquires majority stake in Beautycounter

Global investment firm The Carlyle Group has acquired a majority stake in digital-native clean beauty brand, Beautycounter, an investment that values the company at 1 billion US dollars.

The investment will set Beautycounter up for “accelerated growth,” said Carlyle in a statement, by allowing the beauty company to accelerate its strategic initiatives, including increasing brand awareness as well as bolstering the company’s innovative, integrated, omni-channel business model.

Beautycounter launched in 2013 by Gregg Renfrew with a mission to define the future of the global beauty industry by offering its customers transparency in its ingredients. It champions the fact that its beauty products are free from what it calls 1,800 “questionable or potentially harmful ingredients” on its ‘Never List’ as part of its Blueprint for Clean.

Commenting on the investment, Beautycounter founder and chief executive, Gregg Renfrew said: “In 2013, I launched Beautycounter with the simple mission to get safer products into the hands of everyone. Today marks an exciting and important milestone for our company and I am so proud to partner with Carlyle as we continue to work toward achieving that mission.

“I have long admired Jay and the team at Carlyle for their experience working with brands at the intersection of cultural relevance and consumer demand and believe that our combined vision will be instrumental in accelerating Beautycounter as the leader in clean beauty, and in the beauty industry as a whole.”

The investment in Beautycounter builds on Carlyle’s long-term focus on partnering with founder-led brands focused on growth. Equity capital for the investment came from Carlyle Partners VII, an 18.5 billion US dollar fund that makes majority and strategic minority investments primarily in the US in targeted industries, including consumer, media and retail.

Jay Sammons, head of global consumer, media and retail, The Carlyle Group, added: “We are so excited to partner with Gregg and her outstanding executive team to support Beautycounter’s movement to bring safer products to consumers.

“Beautycounter is a pioneer and leader in the fast-growing clean beauty industry, and we see an opportunity to support a talented, founder-led team in amplifying the brand’s mission to change beauty forever.”

The funding round also included the participation of Mousse Partners, which previously invested in Beautycounter in 2018.