Global beauty accelerator SuperOrdinary made a $25 million investment for a minority stake investment in Crea, the leading omnichannel brand partner for Southeast Asia.
WHO: Crea is the leading digital commerce enabler providing a complete solution for brands in Southeast Asia. Powered by Lazada co-founders Aimone Ripa di Meana and Alessandro Piscini, along with experienced team members who have shaped the digital commerce landscape across Asia, Crea offers the opportunity for global brands to win the millennial and Generation Z consumer by providing end-to-end services to operate on the existing digital channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Line, TikTok, Lazada, and Shopee, and their own online brand store. Crea's platform is powered by its proprietary technology, local logistics infrastructure providing brands an effective and cost-efficient solution to scale through digital commerce.
SuperOrdinary was started by Julian Reis, an industry veteran and the co-founder of Skin Laundry, in 2018 as a laboratory to grow the next generation of innovative consumer brands in China and on Amazon in the US. The fast-growing brand management and distribution company is working with best-in-class global beauty brands to establish and scale their businesses. As an investor, SuperOrdinary is patient capital agnostic in terms of the investment cycle, writing checks from $100K to $50MM taking either a minority or controlling interest. The business is implementing an M&A strategy of incubating, investing in, and acquiring brands to optimize marketing, infrastructure, and scale on a global level, laying the foundation to become the beauty industry's most powerful conglomerate.
WHY: The minority investment forges a strategic alliance between SuperOrdinary and Crea, which will develop a new cross-border Global Platform network and allow each company's respective portfolio to seamlessly expand into new markets. Collectively the businesses have a portfolio of more than 110 brands.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: "We are thrilled to partner with Crea and offer our portfolio of beauty brands a cost-effective, one-stop-shop solution to enter one of the fastest-growing digital consumer markets for beauty and personal care," says Julian Reis, CEO and founder of SuperOrdinary. "Digital commerce in Southeast Asia is experiencing an unprecedented boom and Crea's team has played an integral role in allowing its portfolio of more than 70 prominent lifestyle brands to capitalize on this trend."
"Southeast Asia presents a unique opportunity for global brands with young digital savvy consumers who are increasing their consumption power and avidly engaging with global trends through digital media. Entering these markets with a digital first approach is key and Crea is uniquely positioned to enable this opportunity with an omnichannel strategy," says Aimone Ripa di Meana, Crea co-founder.
Alessandro Piscini, Crea co-founder, states that "Crea has built a unique value proposition through our proprietary technology, CUSP, logistics infrastructure and a world-class team that makes entering Southeast Asia simple for Global brands."
DETAILS:
