Beauty Pie lands US$100M to expand market reach, D2C retail and beauty supplements category

13 Sep 2021 --- Cosmetics and skincare buyers club Beauty Pie has scored US$100 million in funding in a series B financing round. This second round brought the company’s total funding to approximately US$170 million.

The investment will accelerate the company’s move into new markets, as well as further expansion into the wellness and supplements category.

Moreover, the company will experiment with novel retail formats, including pop-up shops and a new membership model, dubbed Beauty Pie Plus.

D2C shopping spike
Index Ventures co-led the round with US-based global private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners, existing investors Balderton Capital and General Catalyst and Latitude VC, sister fund to London-based seed investor LocalGlobe.

Beauty Pie grew during the D2C shopping boom due to the pandemic, doubling its number of members.Beauty Pie experienced exponential growth during the acceleration of D2C shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic, doubling its number of members in FY2021.

Founded in 2016 by entrepreneur and beauty-industry expert Marcia Kilgore, Beauty Pie gives customers access to quality health and beauty NPD.

The products are manufactured at the industry’s leading third-party labs, including products from exclusive suppliers in Switzerland, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, the UK, and the US, at direct-from-the-warehouse prices.

“It’s like Netflix, but for quality beauty and wellness products,” Kilgore supports.

“We are about empowerment, self-worth, and encouraging customers to demand more out of life, even if that means starting with their makeup or their moisturizer. We want millions of customers to have access to our no-middlemen, no-ridiculous retailer markup pricing,” she adds.

Home delivery haven
D2c shopping has increased exponentially due to lockdowns, and our sister website PackagingInsights, included the phenomenon in its top packaging trends for the year “Home Delivery Haven.”

The company will experiment with new retail formats, including a membership model, dubbed Beauty Pie Plus.

E-commerce is a long-term trend, exponentially expanded by the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, according to a survey by Innova Market Insights, 35 percent of global consumers have increased their home food delivery use since the virus outbreak (2021).

In the same arena, beauty subscription boxes proliferated with companies such as Ipsy Glam, Bag Plus, BoxyCharm, Allure Beauty Box and Birchbox seeing high demand.

Many companies are also seeking to increase personalization in digital shopping and make the experience a more pleasant one for consumers.

L’Oréal and Facebook announced a technology platform integration with ModiFace, L’Oréal’s owned augmented reality and artificial intelligence company, to bring AR-powered makeup try-ons to shopping on Instagram.

Facebook’s AR platform Spark AR and ModiFace are providing a technology that brings the quality and accuracy of AR makeup experiences developed by ModiFace to Instagram Shops. Consumers can navigate to the brand’s Instagram page, find a product, and virtually try it before they buy.

Avon México integrated advanced augmented reality and artificial intelligence in its digital platforms in partnership with beauty tech solutions provider Perfect Corp.

Perfect Corp. is also developer of the award-winning YouCam Makeup app and the new technology will empower Avon sales representatives with a powerful facial analysis technology tool to deliver a more personalized consumer shopping experience.

Belcorp launched a new customer experience platform, integrated with Perfect Corp’s AI and AR technology. The virtual try-on technology provides a personalized online shopping experience.

Customers can select from the thousands of products and virtually try them on to find their perfect shade.

Perfect Corp. also partnered with Barry M to provide personalized product recommendations to all customers with its AI and AR virtual makeup try-on experience (VTO).

By Kristiana Lalou

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