Sofie Pavitt Face Receives Seed Funding From True Beauty Ventures

Sofie Pavitt, the aesthetician-turned-brand founder who Nylon calls “the cool girl’s acne whisperer,” has a cool new investor.

True Beauty Ventures, the beauty and wellness venture capital firm, has committed an undisclosed amount of seed funding to Pavitt’s skincare brand Sofie Pavitt Face, a member of Bridge Mentorship’s cohort earlier this year, along with friends and family. Bridge Mentorship is a partnership between TBV and Beauty Independent that readies emerging brands for fundraising.

TBV has tapped into its second fund, which closed in July with approximately $75 million, following its first fund of $42 million. Its portfolio contains 17 active investments across both funds, including Dieux, Caliray, Crown Affair, Vacation and BeautyStat. Sofie Pavitt Face has no previous institutional funding.

“We got to the point where, if we wanted to grow and hire a team, we needed to raise a small round,” says Pavitt. “I love the True Beauty family, I’m obsessed with them. I met with a lot of VCs, and ultimately, they were the ones I decided to go with because they are so invested in us, not only monetarily, but they’ve been amazing to us as a brand.”

TBV was drawn to Pavitt’s energy, passion and credibility as an aesthetician tending to acneic skin, an important differentiator as consumers wade through the dizzying world of clinical skincare. “She works with skin firsthand, and she developed the product out of a need that she saw within her client base,” says TBV co-founder and managing partner Cristina Nuñez. “She became known as this specialist who could really help people battling things like acne. Her products and regimens are very instrumental in transforming people’s skin.”

TBV typically invests $1 million to $3 million for minority stakes in brands with $2 million in net revenues and gross margins of at least 70%. Sofie Pavitt Face is at an earlier stage than most brands the firm backs. The brand declined to disclose its sales and growth rate.

“Women of a certain age are not catered to within the problematic skincare space.”

While Sofie Pavitt Face is sold at e-tailers Goop and Violet Grey and facial destinations like Glowbar, it hasn’t secured distribution at a large beauty specialty retailer yet, a task that’s often a prerequisite for TBV funding. However, TBV co-founder and managing partner Rich Gersten highlights the brand has realized momentum without aggressively spending on marketing, a sign it will be attractive to a large beauty specialty retailer hunting for brands with loyal audiences.

“We have to invest in the brands we have strong conviction about almost irrespective of their stage because there’s just not many brands that are going to check the boxes for us,” he says, noting TBV invests in one of hundreds of brands it runs across. “We felt, in spite of it being early stage and not in a retailer yet, there was something special about Sofie and the partnership we developed with her.”

Pavitt opened her namesake skincare studio in New York City in 2017 after spending 15 years in the fashion industry, primarily as a handbag designer. Her last job before she branched into beauty full-time was at Michael Kors. At the brand, she took frequent trips to South Korea and was exposed to the latest and greatest in K-Beauty offerings.

There are currently seven aestheticians at Pavitt’s skincare studio, and it sees 350 people a month. About 85% of the them are dealing with problematic skin, according to Pavitt, who counts Zendaya and Lorde among her famous clients. She does skincare treatments a day per week and travels to Los Angeles every three months for clients on the West Coast.

“We are trying to make it easy for somebody to clear their skin at home.”

During the pandemic when Pavitt couldn’t perform services in person, she was forced to rely on products to improve her clients’ skin and yielded favorable results. In 2023, she launched Sofie Pavitt Face with hero product and bestseller, Mandelic Clearing Serum. Today, it has four skincare products in addition to Mandelic Clearing Serum: Reset Benzoyl Peroxide Acne Treatment Mask, Nice Ice Toner Pods, Clean Clean Cleanser and Micellar Cleansing Pads.

Running from $24 to $68, Sofie Pavitt Face’s products sit at the entry-level prestige pricing tier, a spot in the beauty industry Gersten believes is strong due to squeezed consumers prioritizing value. He says, “Comparing prestige to mass, prestige has actually held its own from a unit growth perspective, whereas in mass over the last several years it’s only been driven by price and inflation. Now, that’s coming to roost with softer performance.”

In recent years, Nuñez points out pimple patches have been all the rage in acne care (think Hero Cosmetics, Starface, ZitSticka and Peaceout), but Sofie Pavitt Face breaks from the patch parade for more mature customers seeking serious skincare solutions. Nuñez suggests it has an updated take on acne care systems like Proactiv’s that once reigned in the segment. Depending on the forecast source, acne product sales are expected to advance at a 5% to 9% clip.

Pavitt says, “Women of a certain age are not catered to within the problematic skincare space. A lot of time it’s focused on younger consumers with brands like Bubble and acne-focused brands. That’s not my demographic. Our clientele at the studio is 25 onward, and a lot of my clients have hormonal acne, but they’re also looking at anti-aging.”

Delving into Sofie Pavitt Face’s product pipeline, Pavitt previews that the brand is sticking to its specialty in problematic skin. In 2025, she envisions it will have what she describes as a “full system,” but she’s adamant about not overcomplicating skincare regimens.

“We are trying to make it easy for somebody to clear their skin at home. There isn’t a multitude of products to buy, and there isn’t a huge protocol for each one,” says Pavitt, emphasizing, “For a brand to really stand out in the space now, it has to have authority and a point of view.”