lightning ascent
This marketing strategy has made it possible to install “a strong brand”, estimates Charles Rosier, formerly of SBC Warburg and Goldman Sachs. Positioned in the luxury segment, with its blue and gold pots sold between 70 and 300 euros, sometimes more, this beauty start-up plays in the same category as Sisley, La Prairie or La Mer.
Joined by top investors
In four years, it has been propelled to the heights: at the end of 2022, its founders raised 25 million euros, valuing the company more than a billion. “It will be my next unicorn”, trumpeted Jacques Veyrat several years ago, creator of the Impala fund, which invests in energy and digital (Neoen, TagEnergy, Edgyn), but also in cosmetics (Lierac, Roger & Gallet), and who very early took 25% of Augustinus Bader, up to 15 million. And he was not mistaken.
First to believe in the future of the young shoot, in 2016, Veyrat was joined during the last fundraising by Antoine Arnault (LVMH, shareholder of Challenges) and his wife, supermodel Natalia Vodianova, Xavier Niel (Free) and Delphine Arnault (Dior), Javier Ferran (Diageo) and the holding company of the Frère and Desmarais families. The gratin of investors.
Sephora, Oh My Cream et e-commerce
“Now we are focusing on growth”, announces Charles Rosier: from 100 million euros in net sales in 2022, the brand is aiming “one billion in five to seven years”. Admittedly, the cosmetics market is growing very quickly, but Augustinus Bader still needs to expand its distribution network. In addition to its anti-wrinkle cream, the brand, which employs a hundred people, has produced a line of twelve products for the skin (gel, serum, oil, etc.), five for the hair, as well as two food supplements.
Driven by word of mouth, it generates 30% of its turnover in e-commerce, the rest being divided between department stores, Sephora and Oh My Cream, a very fashionable brand of alternative beauty. Augustinus Bader has only one store of its own, in Paris, under the arcades of the gardens of the Palais-Royal.
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“Currently, our heart of activity is in the United States”, emphasizes Charles Rosier. With its products “95% made in France”, the brand, which collects awards, has become a “cult in Holly wood”. In 2021, Women’s Wear Daily, the fashion bible, even awarded the title of “best beauty products of all time” to two of its creams, The Cream and The Rich Cream. “The funds raised will enable us to accelerate in Asia-Pacific and in travel retail”, explains the co-founder. Inhabited, literally, by his vision.
