Key Takeaways:
At a time when the London Stock Exchange has seen few consumer IPOs, The Beauty Tech Group, parent company of CurrentBody, has become an unlikely headline-maker. Behind that pivot is eComplete, a Manchester-based growth platform reimagining what private equity looks like for digital commerce.
Founded almost five years ago by Paul Gedman and Andy Duckworth, both veterans of The Hut Group (THG), eComplete operates at the intersection of capital, data, and operations. The company’s model is straightforward but unique: acquire high-potential direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands, inject capital and in-house expertise, and scale them globally. In just under four years, that formula turned CurrentBody, a once-niche beauty devices retailer under its portfolio, into a diversified powerhouse that recently floated on the London Stock Exchange as The Beauty Tech Group, with sales rising by 27% to £55.2 million ($72.6 million).
From THG to eComplete: A New PE Playbook
Gedman’s résumé reads like a masterclass in digital beauty. As former CEO of the beauty department at THG, he oversaw the division’s expansion from a £20 million ($26.3 million) business to more than £600 million ($790 million), completing 10 acquisitions along the way. Duckworth achieved a similar transformation on the sports nutrition side. Together, they brought a rare operator’s lens to investing. “When you’ve built everything in-house, you understand every bolt and screw of commerce,” Gedman told BeautyMatter. “We wanted to create the most value from that experience, helping £20 million ($26.3 million) brands get to £100 million ($131.7 million). That’s our sweet spot.”
This philosophy led to eComplete’s founding in 2020, built on the belief that the private equity playbook wasn’t fit for the modern DTC world. Traditional firms, Gedman argued, rely on financial modeling that assumes linear growth and static markets. “Private equity has existed to service the old economy,” he said. “It hasn’t really adapted to understand what’s fit for purpose for digital brands.”
eComplete set out to change that, combining a private equity structure with an operator-first mindset. The firm raised more than £110 million ($144.6 million) and began building a small portfolio of majority-owned assets, supported by an internal team of specialists who embed directly into each brand to accelerate transformation.
Building the Beauty Tech Group
CurrentBody was eComplete’s first and defining test. When the firm took a 60% stake in November 2021 at a £50 million ($65.7 million) valuation, the beauty-tech retailer was known for selling third-party brands like Foreo and NuFACE. The founders had built a strong business, but the brand’s potential was far from fully realized. Gedman and his team helped pivot the model entirely. “When we invested, a third of revenue came from [their] own brand,” he explained. “Nine months before exit, revenue was 100% own brand.” In that period, CurrentBody also acquired two device makers, ZIIP and Tria, transforming the company from a retailer into a house of brands.
The results were staggering. Revenues increased tenfold in four years, valuation multiplied six times, and the business rebranded as The Beauty Tech Group, reflecting its broadened scope and technological edge. “What we really loved,” Gedman said, “was that it wasn’t just a great business that scaled internationally. It went through a full transformation, [including] product, brand mix, operations, and growth story.”
If the private equity market has been subdued, eComplete’s decision to take The Beauty Tech Group public might seem counterintuitive. However, for Gedman, the IPO was both a strategic and symbolic move. “The private equity market hasn’t recovered in the last four years,” he said. “Finding one buyer willing to write a £300 million ($395 million) check for a DTC brand is like finding a needle in a haystack. With an IPO, you’re raising a third of that across multiple investors.”
The listing also served another purpose: proof of concept. eComplete’s aim wasn’t just to demonstrate that it could acquire and scale brands, but also to deliver successful exits even in a challenging macro environment. “Anyone can buy businesses if they’ve got capital,” Gedman noted. “Selling them is hard. Doing it in a tough time, when IPOs have been near-silent, really gets us a lot of credit and interest.”
The move has indeed turned heads. Since the float, The Beauty Tech Group’s performance has drawn positive attention from the investment community, making it one of the few successful consumer-brand listings in the UK in recent years.
The eComplete Method: Data, Talent, and Discipline
Central to eComplete’s success is its data-driven operating platform, built in-house under the direction of Joshua Elliott, who leads the firm’s commercial due diligence (CDD) and analytics division. Traditional due diligence, Elliott explained, is “heavily external, [especially] from a financial accountant’s view.” eComplete’s CDD, by contrast, begins with data ingestion, that is, thousands of metrics covering customer repeat rates, order values, operational efficiency, and channel performance.
“Our platform gives us about 50% more actionable data than a typical CDD process,” Elliott said. “It helps us derisk deals quickly and identify the real growth levers: what we can pull, and what will actually move the needle.”
While the in-house platform informs acquisitions, it also underpins day-to-day operations, post-deal. eComplete’s embedded teams work within portfolio companies to streamline logistics, renegotiate fulfillment contracts—often saving hundreds of thousands annually—and build localized digital infrastructure for international expansion.“Internationalizing is one of our sweet spots,” Gedman said. “We’ve grown UK businesses by driving growth outside the UK. That’s how you deliver 60% growth in a flat domestic market.”
Despite its beauty-centric success, eComplete isn’t limiting itself to one category. The firm already owns assets in fragrance, haircare, and CBD, and has evaluated opportunities in fashion. “We’re category-agnostic,” Gedman emphasized. “The data tells us where to invest and why.” Still, the beauty sector remains fertile ground, particularly as private equity sentiment toward consumer brands remains cool. “DTC brands are unpopular with PE right now,” Gedman observed. “That’s actually a great time to be buying in the space.”
Over the next phase, eComplete plans to complete two to three acquisitions per year, using its proven model of operator-led scaling to grow each business before pursuing trade or public exits. Beyond acquisition, the company is also commercializing parts of its proprietary infrastructure including its CDD platform and fulfillment network for external clients, expanding revenue streams without diluting focus.
Market Reaction and Industry Implications
Deals like the Beauty Tech Group’s IPO have brought renewed confidence to a sector often overlooked by institutional investors. In an environment where consumer listings have been scarce, the company’s ability to command attention and deliver tangible growth suggests that well-run DTC brands still have a viable path to public markets. Almost more importantly, the listing has positioned eComplete as a credible blueprint for how digital commerce firms can evolve from startup scale to institutional maturity.
Both Gedman and Elliott agreed that the experience has reshaped their perspective on what it takes to scale in modern beauty. For Elliott, it highlighted the importance of founder readiness. “Private equity has often leaned on management teams who weren’t fully equipped for the journey,” he said. “Education and operator partnership are essential.”
Gedman sees a broader industry shift ahead. “It surprised us how many investors in DTC brands have no DTC experience,” he said. “Funds of the future will need an operator arm, as they’ll have to create value, not just finance it.”
He’s also keeping an eye on the next big inflection point: the transition from “social-first” to “AI-first” commerce. “It’s been easy to launch a site, plug in influencers, and run Meta ads,” he said. “But that maturity phase is ending. The next wave will change how consumers discover and engage with products entirely.”
For eComplete, the journey from THG alumni start-up to IPO-producing investor has been remarkably fast. Yet Gedman insisted that the company is just getting started. “We’ve proven we can buy, build, and exit,” he said. “Now it’s about repeating that model, helping more founders globalize their brands, and showing what modern private equity can look like.”
In a sector where many investors remain cautious, eComplete’s rise offers a rare narrative of conviction and execution. Its success with The Beauty Tech Group signals a turning point for beauty tech, a redefinition of what growth looks like in the digital era.