UK start-up Agora, a new social commerce platform for the beauty industry, raised a seed round of around €5.4 million.
WHO: London-based start-up Agora was founded in 2019. The app allows beauty fans to monetize their talent by creating and sharing video content that links directly to products from their favorite brands. Co-founders Riccardo Basile and Elizabeth Craft Townsend-Rose launched Agora with the aim of bringing the breadth and excitement of an offline beauty shopping experience online.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: Riccardo Basile, co-founder and CEO of Agora, commented, “We built Agora to transform the online beauty shopping experience and create opportunities for real people to monetize their talent and creativity, something that has only been available to brand-sponsored social media influencers. Agora will empower a new category of entrepreneur.”
Lizzie Craft Townsend-Rose, co-founder and President of Agora, said, “We will use the funds to reach new audiences and to build out the platform. We are particularly excited about the opportunity to offer live-streaming events and to use data in order to deliver a personalized, differentiated beauty shopping experience.”
Christoph Hornung, Investment Director at Draper Esprit, said, “We have a strong conviction that there is a huge market opportunity in Europe to build the predominant social e-commerce platform for beauty. Riccardo, Lizzie, and I have worked together before at Lazada; we are all strong believers in fast execution. Draper Esprit is extremely excited to back Agora as they build the largest social beauty business in Europe and beyond.”
Mika Salmi, Managing Partner at Lakestar, commented, “We are delighted to support Agora in their vision to bring video-centric social commerce to Europe. Riccardo and Lizzie are strong entrepreneurs who know this market well from their previous experience at Lazada in Asia.”
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