The Honest Co., co-founded by actress Jessica Alba, has received a $200 million minority investment from private-equity group L Catterton. The investment will accelerate The Honest Company’s innovation initiatives as well as provide access to operational capabilities that will bolster its supply chain and global reach.

WHO: Co-founded by actress Jessica Alba, The Honest Co. was launched in 2012 as a direct-to-consumer proposition of safer alternative baby products. It has evolved into an eco-friendly consumer-goods business. Honest Beauty is sold at Target and on Amazon, and the hair products are sold at Ulta Beauty. By the end of the year, the brand will launch more than 80 new and improved baby and beauty products, including the company’s most significant diaper innovation since its inception, and a reimagined lineup of high-performance clean beauty products.

L Catterton is a private-equity firm, formed in 2016 through the partnership of Catterton, LVMH, and Groupe Arnault, and invests in consumer-focused companies globally. Based in Greenwich, Connecticut, the firm oversees about $14 billion in assets. The firm has long invested in the consumer segment, and in beauty. Current holdings include stakes in Bliss, Elemis, Tula, Kopari, Il Makiage, and Cover FX.

WHY: The capital will accelerate global growth plans and will include expanding Honest Beauty into Europe for the first time with a Douglas launch in spring 2019. That line is also being revamped, with new packaging, products, and prices. The investment will fund continued innovation.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS: “The Honest Co. has tremendous brand equity, innovative and quality products and a loyal customer following,” Scott Dahnke, global co-Ceo of Catterton, told WWD. “The Honest Co. has evolved into a lifestyle brand and has many channels to grow in natural baby, personal care, beauty and adjacent categories in the future.”

Nick Vlahos said to WWD regarding a potential IPO: “We’re a six-year-old company and we compete with companies like Procter & Gamble that is 181 years old. We’re in our infancy from a development standpoint, we’re getting into the toddler years now, and we continue to have opportunity, based on where consumers are gravitating in wellness and better-for-you-type products, to really build an iconic global brand. There’s no discussions around, ‘Hey, we need to go public, we need to go do anything other than what we’re doing,’ currently. We’re well funded as an organization, we have a very clear strategy that we established a year ago when I joined this company.… We’ve just scratched the surface in North America, we’re just embarking on a new frontier in Europe and then the world is our oyster as we look to the future.”

“It has always been my dream to grow The Honest Company into a global brand,” Jessica Alba, founder of The Honest Company, said in a statement. “Our mission from day one has been to empower people to live happy and healthy lives, and we are always in search of new ways to bring that to life. This partnership will enable us to empower more people in more places by delighting them with products that meet their desire for safety, design and performance.”

DETAILS:

• L Catterton makes a $200 million minority investment in The Honest Co. The size of the stake wasn’t disclosed.
• Honest marks the firm’s first traditional CPG investment for L Catterton.
• Baby and beauty are growing double digits, the brand told WWD; beauty was up 34% for 2017.
• Honest raised $297 million from its six prior funding rounds, according to data from Dow Jones VentureSource.
• The Honest Company will continue to be led by its current management team under Nick Vlahos’ leadership, which will continue to be headquartered in Los Angeles.
• A funding round in 2015 valued Honest Co. at about $1.7 billion, a person with knowledge of the details at the time told Bloomberg.
• According to Bloomberg, reports have pegged Alba’s stake at about 15-20% of the company.
• Things have shifted at Honest since Vlahos, a CPG veteran responsible for the global expansion of brands like Burt’s Bees, took the helm in March 2017.
• In 2017, Honest settled the suit over cleaning ingredients for $1.5 million, and a suit related to “natural” labeling for $7 million. According to Reuters, following the settlement, and after a possible deal with Unilever faded, the company said it was raising new funds, at a lower price than its previous round.
• In 2016, Unilever was eyeing an acquisition of the company but ultimately bought its competitor Seventh Generation for $700 million.
• In 2016, Honest Co. was working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley on plans for an initial public offering, people familiar with the matter at the time told Fortune.
• Alba has mentioned that she will step back from the day-to-day operations to focus on her acting career.
• Goldman Sachs advised Honest on the L Catterton investment.