The Good Face Project, a chemistry informatics company that serves the beauty industry, closed a $5.65 million seed round led by VMG Catalyst, the company tells Axios exclusively.
Why it matters: Clean beauty and cosmetics has been “in” for a while now, especially among the Gen Z, millennial and eco-conscious crowd — but as the industry matures, the ingredients list of those formulations will come under increasing scrutiny.
Yes, and: The Good Face hopes to raise its Series A in the next 18 months as it eyes verticals beyond beauty, CEO Iva Teixeira tells Axios. She declined to discuss size or valuation for a Series A.
Details: Spark Growth Ventures, REDO Ventures, Capsum participated in the round and were joined by a host of retail heavyweights, including: Summer Fridays CEO John Heffner, Detox Market CEO Romain Gaillard and GoFundMe Co-Founder Andy Ballester.
In total, the company has raised $7.29 million to date.
State of play: “In the last five years, what has happened in the beauty industry is just a complete revolution driven by the consumer’s desire to understand ingredients,” Teixeira says.
“Call it simply the desire for transparency,” she adds, noting consumers are increasingly concerned about how specific ingredients may impact their skin — and the environment.
Moreover, many retailers have added clean beauty lines, but that comes with more restrictions as to what chemicals they can use.
How it works: Using cloud-based data and technology, The Good Face helps retailers developing products “to actually understand these constraints at the moment of product formulation,” Teixeira says.
Customers include brands like The Honey Pot Company and Amika, manufacturers like Best Formulations and Dynamic Blending, and retailers like Target and CosBar, who’ve developed their own product lines.
What’s next: The company says it hopes to empower chemical product innovators in verticals beyond cosmetics: including supplements, agriculture, and pharmaceuticals, Teixeira says.
Teixeira hopes to expand The Good Face Project’s market leadership in every R&D lab that has “a chemist bench on their premises.”
“In scope are all of the personal care and cosmetics companies who do that,” Teixeira says.
The Good Face Project aims to not just be a resource for the cosmetic chemist but also their product development teams, she says.
Of note: “Beauty is a very stable industry where if you want to grow, you have to have innovation, you have to put out a new product every year,” she says.
This means beauty R&D departments keep busy — and continue to need companies like The Good Face Project.
The bottom line: “What the consumer is asking for them [the retailers] to deliver is no longer just the product and the story and a brand, but also an environmental checklist if you will,” Texiera says.
