THE Conscious Beauty Group, founded by inventor, entrepreneur and environmental activist Yolanda Cooper, has secured £4 million in seed funding, nearly a third of which (£1.25 million) is coming from Northern Ireland based renewables investment firm Aircore Ventures.
The investment - the bulk of which comes from Indian beauty conglomerate Lotus Herbals - will allow the Conscious Beauty Group to further penetrate the US market.
The cash injection will also enable it to extend into the sustainable personal care and wellness category with future innovation; and to launch Supernova Hair Tools, its first electrical hair tools brand (that sector alone was worth $30.1 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach $39.6 billion by 2027).
The Conscious Group comprises We Are Paradoxx, the sustainable beauty brand with a cult following thanks to its edit of natural, vegan and high-performance hair and body products; and also Supernova Hair Tools.
Aircore Ventures, which was established in 2020 by Brendan Boyd as a spin out from his successful renewable energy development company Air Core Ltd, has grown its global venture capital investment portfolio to more than £20 million.
It believes its values align with the Conscious Beauty Group’s drive for sustainable and plastic free innovation within the beauty industry.
Brendan said: "Driving sustainability and promoting clean innovation are key objectives for us at Aircore Ventures, so it made good ethical as well as business sense for us to partner with the Conscious Beauty Group.
"The investment we have provided to the company will allow it to focus on development and grow its product line while enabling further penetration of global markets to achieve its ambitious growth targets."
Despite the last two years being challenging for business, We Are Paradoxx has secured a number of international distributor partnerships to contribute to its future growth including territories such as Scandinavia, Germany and Turkey as well as the travel retail industry and a launch in Asia planned for the first quarter of next year.
The company also now works with some of the world’s leading beauty retailers such as Sephora, QVC TV Shopping, Ulta Beauty and has recently secured a partnership with Target in the USA and has achieved sales of nearly £3 million.
Founder Yolanda Cooper believes that the growing demand for purpose driven brands with sustainable beauty products has played a part in the business’s success to date.
She said: "We are delighted to have Aircore join as our first strategic investment partner in the eco-space. As consumer demand for sustainable beauty rises, so does the presence of greenwashing.
"Consumers are growing wise to this and are challenging brands to be more transparent in their efforts, which puts the Conscious Beauty Group in a strong position as a global leader in plastic free, sustainable beauty. We are committed to growing our business while maintaining and improving our sustainability efforts, and Aircore will be a fantastic partner to support this.’
We Are Paradoxx is making inroads in a global luxury hair care market that is anticipated to be worth $31.5 billion by 2027 with a projected compound annual growth rate of 5.9 per cent.
Conscious Beauty Group is also initiating crowdfunding through Seedrs. This gives an opportunity for its customers and wider community to invest from less than £20 and own a part of the group of companies including We Are Paradoxx and Supernova. Pre-registration is available now at https://www.seedrs.com/conscious-beauty-co/coming-soon
