Building on the success of last year’s program, The Red Tree, the UK-based beauty brand consultancy, and early-stage investment firm SFC Capital are taking applications for The Beauty Accelerator 2021. The initiative offers emerging independent beauty brands the opportunity to receive £150,000 equity investment from SFC Capital plus a yearlong collaborative partnership with The Red Tree to accelerate growth and help build the brand to its next level.

The Beauty Accelerator 2020 was a great success with a huge number of high-quality applicants. We had an extremely competitive Final that culminated in the award of The Beauty Accelerator 2020 to two outstanding brands, Faace and fussy," said Stirling Murray, Managing Director of The Red Tree. "We are excited about discovering entrepreneurs who are driving game changing innovation, creating disruptive brands, and building impressive companies that display the potential to become global.

Stephen Page, CEO of SFC Capital, said, ""We are delighted to be involved in The Beauty Accelerator once more. Last time, we invested in two great startups and even followed up by investing in one of the other contenders. Beauty is an underrepresented sector in the investment world, so we are excited to be helping pioneer early-stage companies getting off the ground through a combination of funding and mentoring. SFC and The Red Tree is an ideal combination of investment and skill that will aid new brands to flourish."

Founder of Faace and joint winner of The Beauty Accelerator 2020, Jasmine Wicks-Stephens, encourages brands to apply: "Go for it. It's not scary, it's really fun. Make sure you've considered every little detail. If you've scrutinized every decision, then not only will you know your brand inside out, you also can't go too far wrong in pushing it forward."

Echoing these sentiments, Matt Kennedy and Eddie Fisher, founders of fussy and joint winners of The Beauty Accelerator 2020, commented, "Make sure you have a clear vision of how your brand breaks the category norms, if you have this, alongside the ability to implement your vision, the game is on! On a more practical note. It will help if it isn't your first pitch or if it is, just think of as many questions that might come up. And what we would do if we were you ... contact the previous winners and grill them!”

The Beauty Accelerator 2021 is open to beauty brands that are based and registered in the UK.

Applications to enter open on Tuesday, 31 August and will close on Friday, 24 September.