Indu is growing up.
The British brand aimed at teens and started by the co-founders of Feelunique has moved to the next developmental phase of fundraising by securing $5.1 million in a seed funding round led by Unilever Ventures, the venture capital arm of consumer packaged goods conglomerate Unilever, with participation fromV3 Ventures, Verlinvest’s early-stage venture fund, co-founded by Lopo Champalimaud, founder of beauty booking platform Treatwell, family offices and existing investors.
The round marks Indu’s first institutional funding and it follows its pre-revenue raise of $4.8 million from roughly 60 individual investors and its direct-to-consumer launch in October and retail debut at Sephora UK in July. The brand expects to arrive at retail in the United States in 2025 and cross into profitability in a year and a half.
With its pre-revenue raise, Indu formed a board of 14 advisors, including Champalimaud. Its products and marketing are shaped by a committee with 250-plus teens. It has 25 core products today with 65 stockkeeping units priced from 8 to 22 pounds or $10 to $28 across skincare, makeup and what it calls its colourless collection of products for “no makeup makeup” looks. So far, Indu is registering 25% to 30% of its sales from repeat customers.
In a statement, Anna Ohlsson-Baskerville, partner at Unilever Ventures, which has beauty brands Trinny London, Straand, Exponent, 7 Virtues and Luna Daily in its portfolio, says, “By creating a line that is for teens, by teens, Indu has found a way to bring them the aspirational products that they need and want while providing parents with the reassurance that they are designed specifically for teen skin.”
Also in a statement, Jimmy Dietz, partner at V3 Ventures, says, “We are incredibly impressed with the Indu team and their dedication to creating safe and appropriate products specifically tailored to teenage skin and lifestyles. Their commitment to addressing the unique needs of teenagers sets them apart in the beauty industry.”
Aaron Chatterley, who founded Indu with fellow Feelunique co-founder Richard Schiessl and Reena Hammer, former managing director at Urban Retreat and global director at Soho House, says, “We’ve raised just under 8 million pounds [or about $10 million], a high number for a beauty startup. The reason we’ve raised so much money is because this is a really ambitious play. We are out to create a global beauty brand.”
He adds, “If you had a blank piece of paper, how would you like to launch a beauty brand? Well, get an absolutely A-list team of advisors, an operational exec team that has done it before, launch with a full range and be in a position to secure major retail distribution. Frankly, that takes quite a lot of capital.”
Having been through the fundraising ringer at Feelunique, the e-tailer that sold to Sephora in 2021, Chatterley emphasizes that personality fit was a critical element of Indu’s institutional funding decisions. The seed funding will be focused on retail support, marketing, merchandise and talent. At the moment, Indu’s team has about 15 full-time employees.
“This is a really ambitious play. We are out to create a global beauty brand.”
“We had this view that, if we wouldn’t want to go out and have dinner with these people outside of work, do we really want them on our cap table?” he says. “I know how challenging and difficult it can be when you don’t have that.”
Indu’s seed funding round comes after the “Sephora kid’ phenomenon of teens and tweens flocking to Sephora stores for brands like Drunk Elephant, Sol de Janeiro and Rare Beauty nabbed headlines at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. The phenomenon demonstrated the powerful lure of brands intended for adults to teens and tweens, and lifted awareness among parents about guiding their children to brands with products and messages appropriate for them.
Chatterley says the phenomenon is larger than Sephora, and he sensed it was bubbling up prior to the headlines due to his 15-year-old twin teen daughters India and Frankie and became part of the rationale for Indu. “I’ve got my own kids two and a half years ago going, ‘I’ve seen on TikTok that, if I use retinols now, I won’t get wrinkles when I’m 30.’ And I’m like, ‘Hang on, you want to strip your face off?’ Clearly, they should not be being sold the concept of using retinols at 12, 13 years old…I’m validated that the concerns that we had two and a half years ago are important now to our consumer base being both parents and teenagers.”
Currently, skincare sales to parents are slightly leading in Indu’s sales mix over makeup, but Chatterley points out that might be because Indu introduced skincare in advance of makeup and conjectures its retail presence will be a big factor in drawing teens. He says, “Our model is very much built around being physically in front of teens, and we’ve seen where we are physically present—we’ve run quite a few pop-ups—the impact is considerable.”
Still, he underscores Indu’s marketing initiatives spreading the word with influential parents has been effective at attracting parents. The brand has tapped mega- and micro-influencers that resonate with teens, too. Timed with Taylor Swift’s five concerts in London’s Wembley Stadium from Aug. 15 to 20, it’s conducting an out-of-home campaign with advertisements in the city’s Underground stations. It will be handing out Indu bracelets as well.
“We have two jobs to do. We have to be desired by teenagers, we have to be cool, we have to be authentic. We’ve done an awful lot of work around building that with the committee and the social media following we’re building up,” says Chatterley. “Our marketing effort today has been very much along those lines of using the community, social media to build the relationship with teenagers and create the coolness and the authenticity with the committee.”
Indu recently went live on TikTok Shop. In brick-and-mortar retail, it had the option to roll out to mass-market drugstore chains in the United Kingdom, but chose to inaugurate retail at Sephora UK to reinforce its prestige positioning, tee up international expansion and be at place that’s a destination for teens. The brand occupies full endcaps in Sephora UK’s three doors.
“Sephora has a really strong parent and teen audience,” says Chatterley. “They really understand the opportunity.” Speaking of the retail opportunity for Indu broadly, he continues, “It’s something that the retailers can offer to teenagers who are looking for something that is specifically for them.”
This article was updated on Aug. 13 to accurately describe V3 Ventures.
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