Beauty incubator The Center received a $15 million minority investment from Prelude Growth Partners.
WHO: The Center is a beauty brand incubator founded by Ben Bennett in 2020. Since its formation, the company has launched masstige skincare brand Naturium, acquired Make Beauty from Mana Cosmetics, and fragrance brand Phlur that will relaunch in 2022. Bennett's vision is to create a portfolio of four to five brands across categories.
Prelude Growth is led by Neda Daneshzadeh and Alicia Sontag, who together bring more than four decades of complementary expertise in the consumer industry. Prior to co-founding Prelude Growth, Ms. Daneshzadeh served as a partner at L Catterton, a global consumer-focused private equity firm. Previously, Alicia Sontag was Global President of Beauty at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, where she led a portfolio of over 10 iconic brands. The firm has invested in Banza, Sol de Janeiro, 8Greens, Summer Fridays, dpHUE, So Good So You, and Westman Atelier.
WHY: The funding will be deployed to build the team and invest in marketing; plans include the launch of a new brand in 2022.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: "Bringing Prelude in is the first time I've ever raised money in my career, I've always bootstrapped my businesses," Bennett told WWD. "I'm a believer that you can still do that, however, it's a much longer road. It's a slower road. And I think that if you want to reach the audience that you're trying to reach, and do it in an effective way, you have to have some capital behind you to be able to find you and let them know that you're there."
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