Meet Beautycounter
As the pioneer of the clean beauty movement for more than a decade, Beautycounter Founder Gregg Renfrew established the standards in clean beauty with a list of more than 1,800 potentially harmful ingredients. The “Never List,” that Beautycounter avoids using in its products, expanded to more than 2,800 ingredients just this year. The move inspired countless other brands worldwide to follow suit.
Gregg was inspired by the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” and became impassioned about environmental health. She made sweeping changes in her own life with household cleaning products, going plastic-free. However, when it came to skin care and personal care products, there wasn’t anything that met the needs of clean, safer ingredients, and performance. A successful entrepreneur, Gregg launched Beautycounter in 2013 as a skin care and cosmetics company that develops and sells products with a focus on the health and safety of ingredients.
In its first four years, Beautycounter saw significant growth as it strategically utilized a direct selling method including retail partnerships and a viral force of consultants. Approaching a key inflection point in 2017, the Company contemplated raising either equity or debt to fund continued growth. Beautycounter chose to partner with Structural over competing lenders and internal/external equity interest, partly due to Beautycounter’s CFO being familiar with Structural’s partnership capabilities.
Continued Scale
During the life of the Structural loan, the Company’s revenue profile increased by a factor of four, partly attributable to the use of proceeds, which went towards technology and infrastructure investment as well as other growth initiatives.
Path to Profitability
Beautycounter’s profitability improved over the life of the loan to the point where the Company became an attractive investment for both strategic and financial parties.
Successful Exit
In April 2021, The Carlyle Group acquired a majority stake in Beautycounter, valuing the company at $1 billion dollars. The partnership will allow Beautycounter to accelerate its strategic initiatives, including increasing brand awareness as well as bolstering the company’s innovative, integrated, omni-channel business model.
“Structural Capital has been a flexible and value-added partner to Beautycounter since the relationship started in 2017. The Structural team has a strong understanding of our business and has been super helpful and flexible in working with us to achieve critical business milestones.”
– Nital Scott, Former Beautycounter CFO
