The 5th FaB Paris Meet Up — thriving D2Cs dealing in DIY and food cosmetics
The Paris chapter of FaB (Fashion and BeautyTech), a community made up of beauty and fashion industry entrepreneurs and investors, held its fifth meet up at Pathfinder’s facilities on February 27th, just days before the city went into lockdown due to the spread of COVID-19.
In the meet up this time, we heard from D2C brands dealing in DIY-related online stores, food cosmetics, and black influencers. There were also a few new initiatives to inspire the French entrepreneurs in attendance — namely the invitation of the organizer of FaB Africa, who is building up her business based in the US, along with as guest speaker a German entrepreneur who is currently achieving fast growth with her company.
A DIY marketplace and food cosmetics
The first-panel discussion featured three businesses by three female entrepreneurs who are envisioning the future of their industry.
Elodie Abecassis founded I-make.com in September 2019, an online store exclusively for DIY-related products. The store sells raw materials and tools for DIY projects in a wide range of fields, including cosmetics, fashion, and home decoration.
Abecassis told of how “the younger generation wants to know where and how products are being made. When they’re serious about this kind of ‘transparency’, they end up not buying existing products, but researching the quality of the raw materials themselves and making things themselves”. Surveys conducted in France in 2019 revealed that one in five people is making their own cosmetics or detergents, and so the market for DIY cosmetics is expected to grow.
Then there’s Laurence Caisey, co-founder of clean cosmetics company Freedge Beauty. After working in L’Oréal’s development division for 23 years, she partnered with her two co-founders, who had experience working at other major companies including P&G, and created 100% natural ultra-fresh skincare products made from freshly-harvested vegetables and fruits.
These products don’t use any added colors, aromas or allergy-inducing substances, and are delivered so that they arrive at the customer’s door within two days after manufacture. Cosmetics are normally guaranteed to last for up to three years while they remain unopened, however, Freedge Beauty products have a much shorter use-by date. For this reason, they’re designed to be placed near the bathroom sink — instead of in the fridge — for two weeks of usage, and the quantity is suited to this duration. Used-up bottles are also able to be washed and reused.
Influencer marketing that swiftly responds to customer needs
Black female influencer Julie Beljio, who has experience as a makeup artist for MAC and Make Up For Ever, founded makeup brand Djulicious Cosmetics on the principles that “there are no standards in beauty” and that “your own beauty should be expressed freely”. Since starting the business six years ago, she has been posting tutorial videos online about how to use her company’s products.
“We’re always listening to the community’s voice when developing our products. If someone asks about how to use something we immediately share a tutorial video on Facebook and Youtube and at the same time allow for physical makeup lessons.” For Beljio, handling customers’ needs promptly is a strength of her company.
The proper timing for procuring funds
The second-panel discussion featured representatives from several startups. In terms of procuring funding, each of these startups adopted a different strategy and timing, and these differing approaches were revealed.
Kelly Massol founded the haircare brand Les Secrets de Loly which is exclusively for the unique frizzy hair of black people and is run entirely on her own funds. The endeavor started in 2009 when she began creating haircare products with natural ingredients in her kitchen and sold them on her website. At first, she tried to raise funds in order to spur on growth, however, there were no investors at the time willing to hear about the untapped potential of products that fulfilled the needs of black women.
So she poured all the revenue she earned into production, and after obtaining enough inventory, visited retail stores in person to sell her products, asking store owners to first try placing them in-store to see if they sell. The outcome was good sales, proving the products fulfilled the needs they were targeting. Currently, the goods are being shipped to 400 stores, mostly in France. Production has also been switched to a different factory, and the business has grown to have an annual turnover of 2 million euros.
Also sympathizing with this plight was Antonia Opiah, co-founder of the LA/NY-based black women’s haircare community site and e-commerce Un-ruly.com. Opiah revealed that 10 years ago in America it was also fairly difficult to gain investment in businesses for black people.
“Investments aren’t just money you receive for nothing. You must have a proper growth story and a way to make a stable profit, and work out a reliable business plan that has returns for investors”. Once her own business was on track and investors felt confident that the black beauty market would scale up, she was able to procure funding.
In the same way, Olivia Louvet, who founded the natural underwear brand Body & Clyde, procured funding just when her business’s growth started to accelerate. With a background in working at the design and textile divisions in fashion houses that include Dior and Balenciaga, Louvet started her company as an ethical underwear brand that stood up in objection to fast fashion and excessive consumption.
In talking about how she obtained funds, Louvet said that “some investors have tended to refrain from investing due to the sluggishness of the fashion industry in recent years. However, by differentiating more in the approach to sustainability — like through producing fashion locally or using natural materials, similar to what’s being done in clean beauty cosmetics — the views of investors can change”.
Marketplace Ankorstore, which launched last summer and connects European brands with retail stores, procured 6 million euros in investments just several months after it was founded from major VCs such as Global Founders Capital, Alven, and Aglaé Ventures.
Co-founder Nicolas Cohen explained how he was able to win over investors at the early stage: “I showed investors an example where a rival company in the US raised around 250 million dollars in a little over two years since it was founded and currently that company has a market value of over one billion dollars. Then I told them how Europe doesn’t have a leading company in this field yet”.
A Berlin startup that grew through social media
Lastly, Monique Hoell, founder of Berlin skincare brand HelloBody that has been deemed the fastest growing startup in Europe, was called on as guest speaker to share about her company’s background and what she had learned so far.
Founded in 2015, HelloBody is a clean beauty brand that respects the diverse beauty of individuals and an ethical company that supports a number of non-profit projects related to the environment and women’s economic independence. With the skillful use of social media in their marketing, the company has expanded out to several European countries as well as the US. Currently, they have 1.1 million customers and have grown to a profit of 65 million euros within four years since foundation.
Hoell revealed that “before HelloBody I co-founded a mobile app that was a personal assistant, but it wasn’t successful. This was because I didn’t research the market and target enough before making the product.” From this, she learned the importance of clarifying the target group and having an optimal team of founders and investors.
HelloBody seems at first like a French cosmetics brand rather than a German company. Due to France having many major cosmetics brands and naturalist cosmetics products, and with the French having deep knowledge and cultivated sense in the beauty field, Hoell thought that “being able to look like a French brand would bring a larger impact to our business. So I invested in bringing out a French-like feeling during product development and when building our social media strategy”.
The FaB, beauty and fashion industry community has chapters in 15 countries around the world. The Paris chapter is using this global network to invite entrepreneurs from other countries to come and inspire French entrepreneurs and investors, and in doing so is helping to advance this ecosystem.
Text: Ching Li Tor
Original text (Japanese) and photos: Motoko Tani
