After a very strong start to 2024, beauty investment and M&A activity hit a bit of a rough patch in the second quarter. Deal activity was down 23.5% during the second quarter versus the same period last year, with the BeautyMatter Deal Index tracking only 52 deals. For the first half of the year, deal activity is down 5.6%. The Index also tracked another seven brand shutdowns, bringing the total shutdowns in the first half of 2024 to 14. The most notable development observed during Q2 was the steep decline of growth deals (including venture-backed deals and minority investments). The Index tracked a mere 16 growth deals during the quarter, the lowest number since we started tracking this data. To put those results in context, during the last 15 quarters, BeautyMatter tracked an average of 44 growth deals per quarter. In 2023, the average was 32 growth deals per quarter.