What do Yes To, Huda Beauty, Pai Skincare, Il Makiage and Milk Makeup all have in common? Aside from being popular beauty brands with a reputation for innovation, the five all received outside financial investment in 2017.
Dan Stern
Finding the right investor for your beauty brand can make all the difference when it comes to building your business, helping you to expand into new markets, increase distribution and meet your – and your shareholders – expectations.
Dan Stern is the Investment Director at private equity firm Piper, which recently invested in NEOM Organics.
Here, he talks to Cosmetics Business about what the company considers before investing in a business and how a brand seeking investment should go about it...
Tell us a bit about Piper's set-up and the current portfolio...
Piper is an investor in fast growing consumer brands. We were founded by entrepreneurs 30 years ago and we now back entrepreneurs to help them grow their brands in the UK and internationally.
We normally make minority or majority investments and our team is a real mix of individuals: e-commerce experts, head-hunters, consumer insight specialists as well as the financial brains!
Our current portfolio spans different verticals but all are brands that consumers love.
In 2017, we invested in Flat Iron (a steak restaurant), Frame (a boutique fitness brand), Barking Heads (a pet food business) and most recently Neom. Other current investments include Propercorn, Monica Vinader, Turtle Bay, Be at One, Forthglade and Hickory’s.
Why did Piper decide to invest in NEOM this year?
We have known Neom since 2009 and have given them advice along the way over the last eight years.
Last year, the stars aligned and the founders of Neom decided they wanted to take on investment to help accelerate the growth and work with a partner that can help deliver their ambitions.
The reason Neom stood out for us is its wellbeing proposition.
We think this will become increasingly important as people’s lives become more and more hectic. The other key factors were fantastic product quality, a great management team and a business that can significantly grow.
What other factors does Piper consider when deliberating whether to invest in a company?
Factors will always vary from business to business but there will always be some common themes: a clear customer proposition that is better and different (which a brand needs to be able to articulate), a great
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