The intention of The Beauty Accelerator was to discover the next big thing in British beauty. Red Tree and SFC Capital chose Faace and Fussy as the winners of the inaugural program. Both brands are a testimony to the world-class creativity, expertise, and entrepreneurship in the British beauty industry. Upon the completion of financial evaluation and commercial due diligence, both brands will receive £150,000 in equity investment and 12 months of mentorship by The Red Tree and SFC Capital to take each brand to its next stage.

The program received applications from UK registered new and emerging independent brands across all categories of beauty. An extended shortlist of 6 brands was selected to appear in The Beauty Accelerator Final, a two-day event where each finalist pitched to The Red Tree and SFC Capital.

Faace is a trio of masks created with the goal of simplifying skincare with three hard-working and targeted products: Period Faace, Tired Faace, and Sweaty Faace. The brand was founded by Jasmine Wicks-Stephens, who spent the past 13 years working in the beauty industry as founder and CEO of Known PR.

Founded by Matt Kennedy and Eddie Fisher, who both come from advertising and branding backgrounds, Fussy has tapped into the trend of refillable beauty products that reduce single-use plastic consumption. The refillable deodorant is a DTC subscription-based model.

Reflecting on process, 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.”

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.”

The Beauty Accelerator will return in 2021.