The Red Tree and SFC Capital are delighted to announce that Faace and Fussy are both Winners of The Beauty Accelerator™ 2020. Both brands will now go on to receive £150,000 equity investment subject to financial evaluation and commercial due diligence, plus the knowledge and expertise of The Red Tree applied over 12 months to take each brand to its next stage and beyond.
The Beauty Accelerator™ 2020 welcomed applications from UK registered new and emerging independent brands across all categories of beauty. Having received an overwhelming number of high quality applicants and conducting interviews with an extended short-list of candidates, 6 brands were selected to appear in The Beauty Accelerator™ Final, a two day event where each Finalist pitched to The Red Tree and SFC Capital.
Reflecting on The Beauty Accelerator™ Final, Stirling Murray, Managing Director of The Red Tree said: “The 6 Finalist brands were of an extremely high calibre and we congratulate and highly commend the runners up – Centred, Cutbox, Glaize and On Beaute – each of whom are strong brands with exciting futures. In a very competitive field, both Faace and Fussy were outstanding and could not be separated across our scoring categories.
The founder of Faace, Jasmine Wicks-Stephens, has achieved so much in such little time, growing Faace to an impressive level, securing prestigious retail listings both in the UK and internationally, all the while juggling running a PR agency and being a mum to a toddler. We are looking forward to working with Jasmine to accelerate both her D2C and retail sales as well as supporting her on operational processes.
Fussy taps into an accelerating trend of refillable beauty products that reduce single use plastic consumption. We have seen similar brands succeed internationally and Fussy is carving its own way on this path. We are excited to be able to work with Matt Kennedy and Eddie Fisher to fine tune Fussy’s launch and its retail expansion strategy”.
Stephen Page, CEO and Founder of SFC Capital said: “All of the finalists deserve recognition for making it this far in the process, it was an incredibly talented field, and it was very hard to separate them. This is shown by the fact we had to choose both Faace and Fussy as winners as they matched each other across the categories we appraised the companies on. We must remember the disproportionate effect the pandemic has had on the beauty sector and that we must look to support this highly dynamic and innovative industry. At SFC we are always on the lookout for impressive companies and we look forward to working with The Red Tree to support our winners over the next 12 months to help them on their next stage of growth.”
Commenting on the win, Jasmine Wicks-Stephens, Founder of Faace, said: “It means so much to win The Beauty Accelerator™, it’s a dream come true. We applied, never thinking we would ACTUALLY win, and are beyond elated to get not only the investment, but the ongoing support we need to accelerate what we’ve started with Faace. We are just so excited to see what happens next”.
Reacting to the news, Matt Kennedy and Eddie Fisher, Co-Founders of Fussy, stated: "It quite literally means the world to us. With the support of The Red Tree and SFC Capital we look forward to not only saving the planet...but smelling amazing whilst doing it. Power to your pits!”
Discussing the impact of The Beauty Accelerator™, Stirling Murray concluded that: ”The strength of the Finalists, and the high calibre of the Winners, is testimony to the world class creativity, expertise and entrepreneurship in the British beauty industry. The intention of The Beauty Accelerator™ was to discover the next big thing in British beauty and with Faace and Fussy, we are confident that we have done so. We are delighted and excited to partner with them both on the next stage of their growth”.
The Beauty Accelerator™ will return in 2021 and brands that are interested in applying are advised to sign up to The Red Tree newsletter and follow The Red Tree and SFC Capital on social media to receive updates.