Clean beauty brand Iris&Romeo lands a Series A partnership backed by emerging growth fund True Beauty Ventures, in advance of a launch with Sephora.
WHO: Iris&Romeo was founded by Michele Gough-Baril after two decades in the beauty industry, climbing her way to the top. Burned out by the persistent excess and hustle culture, she stepped away to the healing rhythms of Northern California and gave herself permission to reprioritize her relationship with her body and herself. Launched in 2019 as the antidote to the beauty hustle culture and the "more is more" mentality, the clean, skincare-makeup hybrid brand brings products into the world thoughtfully, consciously, and beautifully. They are committed to multifunctional, all-in-one, tinted skincare solutions of the highest quality and efficacy. The brand is currently sold in Credo Beauty and on the brand website.
True Beauty Ventures is an emerging growth fund dedicated to beauty and wellness that was created to provide not just capital to indie brands in the space, but also true partnership and sector expertise. They leverage decades of beauty-focused institutional investment experience, first-hand operating expertise, and extensive industry insider networks to help businesses scale into successful, resilient, and long-lasting beauty brands. Their portfolio consists of Ami Colé, Aquis, BeautyStat, Caliray, Cay Skin, Crown Affair, Dieux, Evolvetogether, Feals, K18, Kinship, Maude, Moon Juice, Vacation, Youthforia, and The 7 Virtues.
WHY: Iris&Romeo plans to use capital to improve retail readiness through supply chain sufficiencies, elevating brand-first content, and securing key hires to complement its current best-in-class team.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: "Launching at Sephora is a pivotal moment for our brand. It gives us an opportunity to tell our story on a bigger level and for a whole new group of customers to try our products and fall in love," expressed Michele Gough-Baril, the company's founder. "For me personally, it's a dream come true moment because I've worked with Sephora for many years on other brands, and to do it now with the brand I founded is beyond exciting."
"We're thrilled to introduce Iris&Romeo to our clients as a part of our growing clean makeup assortment," said Amy Abrams, VP Merchandising, Makeup at Sephora. "With its minimalist and simplified approach to beauty, Iris&Romeo offers multi-use products that are clean, high-performing, and seek to improve skin's wellness with every wear. We look forward to introducing this innovative brand to our Sephora community and know that it will be a great addition to our assortment."
"We are thrilled to bring on True Beauty Ventures as our Series A lead. Rich and Cristina's expertise in the early stage beauty space is unparalleled. Having Cristina on our board will be incredibly valuable as we scale," Tara Desai, the company's CEO, commented. "This Series A funding will unlock the brand's ability to reach more consumers. Our existing customer base is exceptionally loyal. Strengthening our ability to reach her in more places will accelerate our growth, especially within our 35+ demographic." Tara Desai joined Iris&Romeo in 2022, after working for brands such as Estée Lauder and Marc Jacobs.
"After three years of building a strong relationship with Iris&Romeo, we are thrilled to announce our lead Series A investment," said Cristina Nuñez, co-founder and Partner at True Beauty Ventures. "The brand is at a major inflection point driven by excellent product development, strong consumer demand, and an industry tailwind of multi-functional makeup-skincare hybrids. We are excited to support Iris&Romeo in this next phase of growth."
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