The Red Tree, the UK’s leading international beauty brand consultancy, and SFC Capital, a leader in the UK’s early-stage investment world, are delighted to announce the return of The Beauty Accelerator for 2021.
The UK’s most exciting beauty initiative offers emerging independent beauty brands the opportunity to receive £150,000 equity investment from SFC Capital plus a year-long collaborative partnership with The Red Tree to dramatically accelerate the brand’s growth and help build the brand to its next level and beyond.
Stirling Murray, Managing Director of The Red Tree said; “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 2020TM to two outstanding brands, Faace and fussy.
"We continue to see so many dynamic independent brands created by brilliant founders. Following the success of the 2020 programme we look forward to applicants from brands across all categories – from colour cosmetics, skin care, fragrance, hair care, male grooming, supplements, sexual wellness and beauty tech. 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 scrutinised 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 AcceleratorTM 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!”
Applications to enter The Beauty Accelerator 2021 open on Tuesday, 31 August 2021 and will close on Friday, 24 September.
The best applicants will then be short listed and invited to attend virtual interviews with The Red Tree.
Virtual interviews will conclude on Thursday, 14 October and the finalist brands will be selected.
The Beauty Accelerator 2021 Final will be held on Wednesday 20 and Thursday 21 October 2021, with each finalist required to pitch their business plan to The Red Tree and SFC Capital.
*The Beauty Accelerator 2021 is open to beauty brands that are based and registered in the UK. For further information, the full list of entry criteria and to register for further updates, please visit theredtree.co.uk.
