UK-based Beauty Pie bills itself as the first luxury beauty products buyers club. Founded in 2016 by Marcia Kilgore, the Canadian entrepreneur who also springboarded the FitFlop footwear, Soap & Glory and Souper Duper bath and body brands, its direct-to-consumer membership model has been a huge success in the UK and the US.
The company has been on the radar of Australian beauty fans since the early days and one of queries on the website’s FAQs list is – Why doesn’t Beauty Pie ship to Australia?
An answer could be on its way. Beauty Pie has raised US$100 million in a Series B funding round to fast-track expansion, taking its total fundraising efforts to date to US$170 million.
Led by Index Ventures, the global venture capital firm, and Insight Partners, the leading private equity company with US$30 billion in capital commitments, the latest round also included existing investors such as Balderton Capital, General Catalyst and Latitude Ventures.
Index Ventures has previously funded Deliveroo, the online food delivery service, and luxury fashion website, FarFetch. Insight Partners has invested in the digital operations of Saks Fifth Avenue, the prestige US department store chain.
Beauty Pie members pay monthly or annual fees to access luxury beauty products at heavily discounted prices. Sourced from third party suppliers, the company’s major areas of operation are skincare, makeup, hair care, body care, candles, fragrance and nutritional supplements.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Beauty Pie doubled its total membership and the additional funds will help to finance new warehouses, pop-up shops in the US and internationally over the next few years and a new membership model.
Beauty Pie’s first-ever pop-up debuted at Harvey Nichols, the upmarket London department store, in March 2020 and was a roaring success over its 12 weeks of operation.
Beauty Pie delivers huge value to its customers, demonstrated by exceptional member loyalty over many years”, added Danny Rimer, Partner at Index Ventures.
“It’s a model that marries industry disruption with customer obsession – a winning combination.”