- 2024-06-27
- 阅读量：3860
- 来源｜Cosmetic Business Online
- 作者｜Shi Run Mei
Invests in startups focused on the circular economy, beauty and customer service technology sectors.
Recently, Global Corporate Venturing reported that Brazilian cosmetics giant Natura&Co has launched Natura Ventures, a corporate venture capital fund.The new fund is co-managed by influential Brazilian investment firm Vox Capital, and has an initial capital of 50 million Brazilian reais for the first three years (approx. 66,587,600 RMB).Natura Ventures will focus on Brazil, investing in 15 startups focused on circular economy, beauty and customer service technologies, providing these startups with between BRL 2 million (approx. RMB 2,663,500) and BRL 10 million (approx. RMB 11,317,500) in funding.
01
Seeking new business growth after selling "two sons"
Information on Natura Ventures' official website indicates that its goal is to strengthen the collaboration between Natura&Co Latam (Natura&Co Latin America) and innovative startups in order to develop regenerative solutions that integrate the value chain and a wide network of companies.
"Natura has been engaged in open innovation for more than 20 years and we have worked with corporate venture capital in one way or another, but had no official venture capital vehicle. Over the last 9 months we have worked hard to plan for the next 15 years and we believe it is time to have our own vehicle to use in our innovation strategy. This gives us even stronger motivation." José Manuel Silva, Vice President of New Business at Natura&Co Latam, said.
● José Manuel Silva, Vice President, New Business, Natura&Co Latin America
In 2021, Natura&Co had announced the launch of Fable Investments, a venture capital fund, and the appointment of Thomas Buisson, former managing director of Europe at Aesop Aesop, as chairman of the fund. Fable Investments is said to be a target-driven corporate investment fund focused on providing minority investments in early growth stage, differentiated and innovative companies in the beauty and wellness industry.
Currently, Fable Investments has invested in British fragrance brand Perfumer H, Los Angeles skincare brand Stratia Skin, and in April, Fable Investments announced the acquisition of a partial stake in Eadem, a cosmetics brand focused on people of color.
Previously, Natura&Co had owned four brands, Aesop Aesop, The Body Shop, Avon and Natura. Starting from the first quarter of 2022, Natura&Co began to lose money continuously, and by the first half of 2023, it had six consecutive quarters of losses. In order to reverse the situation of continuous losses, Natura&Co has sold Aesop Aesop and The Body Shop last year to simplify operations. Currently, Natura&Co only has two brands left, Avon and Natura, and two divisions, Natura&Co Latam (Natura&Co Latin America) and Avon International.
However, judging from the performance of the financial report, the successive sale of two sons did not solve its fundamental problems.
According to the latest financial data, Natura&Co's consolidated net income in the first quarter of 2024 amounted to R$6.105 billion (about 8.164 billion RMB), with sales down 5.7% year-on-year and net profit slipping by 4.3%.The two divisions of Natura&Co experienced different degrees of sales decline in the first quarter of this year, with Natura&Co Latin America's revenues falling by 3.3% and Avon International revenue fell 13.1%.
In the first quarter results report, Natura&Co CEO Fabio Barbosa has said that it is still continuing to carry out research on the divestment of Avon. From the performance point of view, Natura&Co set up a corporate venture capital fund, is undoubtedly one of the programs to seek new growth and get rid of performance losses.
02
Cosmetics giant unrolls venture capital
The establishment of venture capital funds by consumer cosmetics giants is actually a common means of expanding their business footprint. Estee Lauder, L'Oreal, Unilever and Shiseido have all set up venture capital funds or incubation units.
The Estée Lauder Group launched its early-stage investment and incubation arm, New Incubation Ventures, in 2021.Since its inception, it has invested in men's beauty startup Faculty, and UK-based natural skincare and fragrance brand Haeckels; last year, it acquired a minority stake in up-and-coming UK fragrance brand Vyrao, made a minority investment in Chinese clean beauty brand Codemint and a minority investment in the local Chinese fragrance Melt Season brand. In April, New Incubation Ventures, the early-stage investment and incubation arm of the Estée Lauder Group, led a round of investment in Web3 beauty startup KIKI World.
The L'Oréal Group set up its first venture capital fund "BOLD" (Business Opportunities for L'Oréal Development) in 2018. In 2022, L'Oréal invested 100 million RMB to set up the Shanghai Mijifang Investment Company Limited, which mainly BOLD focuses on technology and innovation companies with high growth potential in marketing, digital and R&D, supply chain and packaging. Currently, BOLD has invested in Chinese hardware startup Ruyuan Technology Zuvi, US synthetic biotech company Debut and sustainable biotech company Genomatica Inc, and has also acquired minority stakes in Swiss water conservation startup Gjosa and Swiss biotech company Timeline. In addition, Shanghai MJV invested in two local Chinese high-end fragrance brands, Wen Xian and Guan Xia.
Unilever Ventures, the venture capital and private equity arm of the Unilever Group, was established in 2002 to invest in early-stage companies with growth potential in the personal care, e-commerce and digital transformation sectors. Its portfolio includes vegan beauty brand ESQA, sustainable skincare brand BYBI, and pure makeup brand Saie, among others. Last year, the venture capital arm made its first foray into the fragrance sector with an investment in The 7 Virtues, a Canadian perfume brand known for its clean and sustainable production.
Last year, Shiseido announced the launch of LIFT Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on investing in innovative early-stage companies in the beauty and wellness sectors, with a focus on North and South America as well as Australia. On the day of its inception, Shiseido announced the Ventures' first investments, which included investments in Phyla, a phage technology pioneer, and Patrick, a lifestyle-enhancing men's grooming brand. Earlier, in May 2022, Shiseido's first China investment fund, Shiseido Fund, was established in Xiamen, and in August of the same year, Shiseido made a 100 million yuan investment in a recombinant collagen biomaterials company, Chuangjian Medical.
In addition to foreign beauty giants, domestic headline beauty companies, including Perrier, Shangmei and BeiTaiNi, have joined the VC track. In the final analysis, the purpose of VC is to expand the business territory, bet on emerging technologies, or expand sales channels. In terms of the areas involved in investment, niche fragrances, upstream raw materials, as well as focusing on niche tracks with characteristics of the beauty brand favored by the capital, technology startups are also a big part of their hearts. The giants also prefer to bet on multiple emerging brands or companies through a less risky way like minority equity investment, so as to penetrate into various fields, and as more and more head enterprises come down to do VC, the investment and financing track is more lively.
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