BeautyBio Takes Minority Investment From Kainos
BeautyBio has closed on a minority investment from Kainos, a Dallas-based private equity firm.
BeautyBio, best known for its GloPro microneedling devices, plans to use the funds to continue product development and global expansion, according to founder and chief executive officer Jamie O'Banion.
"They're not a traditional beauty fund, which is something that I loved because we want to make sure we're always meaningful to whoever we partner with," O'Banion said, referencing the firm's current lack of other beauty investments. "Because we're scaling right now it's less about having someone that is able to make an introduction…What I need is someone who's an operational expert."
BeautyBio anticipates freight shipping and digital expertise will come from the firm, O'Banion said
BeautyBio straddles both skin-care devices with its rolling tools and skin-care with its product line. According to O'Banion, the brand is able to successfully do both because it started in skin care first, before launching GloPro. "I had to convince people as a skin-care expert why they should incorporate a tool — it's a totally different approach," she said.
"A woman doesn't care if she's using a microneedling tool, a Vitamin A cream, an ingestible beauty drink — she just wants the result," O'Banion said.
Recent launches, like the R45 treatment, a three-phase retinol treatment, have been fast sellouts, according to O'Banion. The Lift neck treatment, launched just days ago, is also selling well, she noted.
"We're all about newness, but it's not for the sake of launching newness — it's a problem-solution approach," O'Banion said.
Right now, BeautyBio is sold in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., and later this year expects to expand to Sephora Southeast Asia and Douglas in Germany, O'Banion said. The business will also launch at Cult Beauty this year.
"We started doing a lot more sampling when we launched Sephora in October; we did a kit where we did mini sizes of the nighttime routine…because of that, we had this huge boom in skin care," O'Banion said.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but industry sources estimated BeautyBio is expected to double in 2019 to more than $100 million in sales. Financo advised BeautyBio on the deal.
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