IBMG’s BeautyX Summit Series Concludes For This Year With BeautyX Capital In New York City

BeautyX Capital, the culmination of Indie Beauty Media Group’s three-part entrepreneurial development program, BeautyX Summit, will take place on Aug. 20 to 21 in New York City. BeautyX Capital will be hosted by Beauty Independent and the founders and executives of IBMG.

The BeautyX Summit series began in Los Angeles in January with the BeautyX Media & Influencer Summit before moving to Dallas in May for BeautyX Retail. Each BeautyX, including the upcoming BeautyX Capital in New York, is held on the Monday and Tuesday before the two-day trade show Indie Beauty Expo (IBE), creating a four-day immersive experience for beauty entrepreneurs choosing to attend or exhibit at IBE and attend BeautyX.

To provide summit attendees with a comprehensive education on the capital and funding landscape, IBMG designed a packed program with panel presentations, courses, case studies and fireside chats. “We have developed a 360-degree, multi-modal education program,” explains IBMG co-founder Nader Naeymi-Rad. “We don’t rely solely on panels, presenters or classes. We combine them all in a structured and carefully planned way that makes the most sense for the beauty entrepreneur and produces the best results.”

BeautyX Capital comes seven months into a year of fevered investment in the beauty space. In February, millennial makeup and skincare brand Glossier secured $52 million from existing investors. Last month, private equity firm Tengram Capital Partners acquired makeup and hair color line Lime Crime, and private equity firm TPG Capital made a minority investment in prestige cosmetics brand Anastasia Beverly Hills. On top of these high-profile deals, a number of more modest partnerships were forged between beauty brands and all classes of investors from angels to strategic corporate players. In a complex and competitive investment environment, founders without a finance background are looking information they can trust on the often bewildering subject of raising capital.

IBMG leverages its knowledge of the independent beauty space to provide valuable education to entrepreneurs at every stage of business. “We know this space. We know the founders, their journeys, their products and their status,” says Naeymi-Rad. “We’ve learned that 93% of them are too small for even early-stage venture capital. We see the opportunity in this 93%, and we want to help them, instead of having them sit and listen to the manager of a $3 billion fund talk about how his‘minimum check size is $100 million. That information might be good to know, but it isn’t immediately helpful to the vast majority of beauty entrepreneurs leading indie brands today. Instead, we balance the macro conversations with a heavier focus on avenues such as angel investors for BeautyX Capital.”

An early-stage investment tool BeautyX Capital Summit will explore is crowdfunding. In recent years, reward-based and equity crowdfunding have emerged as viable options for beauty brands to raise pre-seed and seed funding. BeautyX Capital will feature a panel discussion with Camille Bell, founder of Pound Cake Cosmetics, who raised over $20,000 through reward-based crowdfunding, and Brianne West, CEO of New Zealand-based Ethique, who raised $500,000 in 90 minutes through a crowdfunding campaign to start her zero-waste brand. In addition to the panel discussion, BeautyX will hold an in-depth class on how crowdfunding campaigns work, benefits and common pitfalls.

After the crowdfunding programming on the morning of day one, BeautyX Capital will progress through different methods of funding from angel investors to venture capital to private equity to, finally, corporate strategics who not only invest in, but seek to wholly acquire beauty brands they believe have potential.

Beauty brands already acquainted with the fundraising process will hear about possible next steps. “Having kicked off our early stages with a small angel round, we want to position ourselves for the next stage of our business,” says Take My Face Off CFO Jennifer Stetson, who will be attending BeautyX Capital with Take My Face Off founder Amanda McIntosh. “We want to know what matters most to venture firms. If we know their priorities, we can better set our own. Are sales the most important factor? Do they care about social followings? Do they just want a well-run business with organized books and an infrastructure that’s poised for growth? We’re looking for specifics.”

As with the BeautyX Media & Influencer and BeautyX Retail summits, BeautyX Capital will wrap up with a live on-stage entrepreneurial competition dubbed “Deal Appeal.” Three IBE New York exhibiting brands will participate and be advised by three best-in-class bankers. The will present investment proposals to an investment committee composed of experts with proven track records in the beauty industry.

A real-time competition makes for a dynamic finale to a two-day event, and Naeymi-Rad contends that the process is valuable not only for the founders on the stage, but also those in the seats. “Educational studies have shown that a live learning demonstration is one of the most effective ways to communicate and absorb information,” he says. “Deal Appeal will show attendees how conversations about investments go down in real time and engage them in an exercise with real-life consequences. The thrill of watching someone reach for an actual reward has made this component of BeautyX Summits a persistent crowd favorite.”

Following BeautyX Capital Summit will be the fourth and largest New York edition of IBE. More than 225 beauty and wellness brands from a dozen countries will converge at New York’s Pier 36 for consumer-oriented SHOP INDIE and retail buyer-centered TRADE INDIE on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

Visit the BeautyX website for more information or to buy tickets.