Longevity Brand OneSkin Pulls In Series A Funding From Selva Ventures, Unilever Ventures, Camila Alves McConaughey And More

As the race to win in the longevity category picks up pace, OneSkin’s ability to be in the running has improved by securing $7 million in series A funding to accelerate growth.

Previous investor Selva Ventures, backer of Crown Affair, Minu, Perelel and Hello Cake, led the oversubscribed series A round, with participation from Unilever Ventures, Plus Capital and Able Partners along with model, entrepreneur and author Camila Alves McConaughey, tech entrepreneur Kevin Rose and existing investors SOSV and Meta Planet. It pushes OneSkin’s total funding to $20 million.

CEO Carolina Reis Oliveira, a Brazilian with a doctorate in stem cell research who founded San Francisco-headquartered OneSkin in 2016 with fellow Brazilian scientists Alessandra Zonari, Mariana Boroni and Juliana Carvalho, says the series A round bumped the brand’s valuation up “significantly” from its last funding round two years ago. It could support a variety of efforts, and glancing ahead to 2025, OneSkin expects to advance clinical studies, expand its team now sitting at 30 people, enlarge its assortment, unveil a brand refresh that elevates its packaging and increase top-of-the-funnel marketing.

“It’s really to have a safety cushion. We want to continue to grow the company in a healthy and sustainable way, but, in case we need to, we can tap into that funding,” says Oliveira. “Luckily, the company is profitable, and we want to continue to grow with positive EBITDA year-over-year.”

After screening over 900 peptides in five years, OneSkin identified OS-O1, a patented peptide it describes as reversing the skin’s biological age by warding off senescent or zombie cells that diminish the skin’s barrier and regeneration. It began in direct-to-consumer distribution in 2021 with a single product, bestseller OS-O1 Face Topical Supplement, and has since introduced five products: OS-O1 Body Topical Supplement, OS-O1 Eye Topical Supplement, OS-O1 Face SPF 30+, Triple Power OS-O1 Body SPF and Prep Facial Cleanser. Non-subscription prices range from $45 to $120. Two-thirds of OneSkin’s sales are from online subscribers.

“I’ve never seen anything like it in terms of the R&D engine that they have. Every day, they are testing samples in their lab,” says Madeline Kaplan, partner at Selva Ventures. “What they have done so well is be able to take that science and really turn it into an exceptional product. You can have all of the technology behind what you are building, but, at the end of the day, you have to create something that delivers for consumers, and they have figured out how to do that.”

Zonari, CSO of OneSkin, says the brand is developing 2.0 versions of its products that involve enhancing the delivery system of its peptide. It has three products on deck for release within the next two years and is researching other novel peptides it could launch in addition to OS-O1. “Our intention is not to create a lot of SKUs or move far from skin. We want to be leading the skin heath space,” says Zonari. “So, the idea is to evolve our formulas.”

“We want to be leading the skin heath space.”

In a consumer realm that’s seen venture capital flea as DTC stars lost their luster and digital customer acquisition costs climbed, longevity is an area of promise attracting investment. Bank of America analysts project the longevity market will be worth at least $600 billion by 2025. Longevity startups like OneSkin as well as Novos and Timeline, two that have also received funding, drill down on optimizing people’s health throughout the course of their lives. In the beauty industry, they’re an extension of the merging of beauty and wellness that’s been occurring of late.

“A lot of strategics have said that one of the initiatives they’re focused on is this intersection of beauty and wellness, and OneSkin is really well positioned to be a leader there,” says Kaplan. “I don’t know what the exit looks like exactly, but I think they are building something really valuable.”

Kaplan highlights that a sign of OneSkin’s value is that, because of what she characterizes as “strong” margins and retention, it’s scaled a DTC business during a rough period for DTC. In June this year, industry sources cited by the publication BeautyMatter estimated OneSkin’s 2024 revenues at around $10 million. Although Oliveira declines to share the brand’s revenues, she indicates that estimate is low. She says, “As a company, I consider OneSkin at series B level in terms of revenue.”

Part of OneSkin’s success in DTC is due to its cultivation of entrepreneurial and health experts. The brand has been featured on the podcasts “Moonshots with Peter Diamandis” and “Lifespan with Dr. David Sinclair,” and podcasts are its No. 1 customer acquisition channel. In 2025, it will boost its presence at longevity events. Gen X and millennial women are OneSkin’s core customers, but 20% of its customer base is men.

Last year, OneSkin landed on Amazon, which accounts for 10% of its sales today, to offer convenience to consumers, particularly podcast listeners shopping regularly on the giant e-commerce platform. Oliveira says the brand is forging relationships in the professional beauty sector and has no immediate plans to enter brick-and-mortar retail. Still, it’s examining retail possibilities to sort out what could be the best retail fit for it.

Kaplan says, “The idea is really to go in from a position of, how do we collaborate in a meaningful way with a retailer to bring skin longevity to the forefront? There are really big ambitions in terms of what that strategy looks like and, because the business model works, they aren’t in a huge rush to get into retail.”