PARIS — We Are Paradoxx, a prestige plastic-free beauty company, has raised $4 million in seed funding.
The Belfast, Northern Ireland-based concern, which was launched in 2019, most recently closed a $1 million round, with new investors including Tom Singh, founder of the U.K. fashion retail chain New Look, and a board director of We Are Paradoxx, alongside existing investors, including individuals and venture capitalists.
High-end hair care — which is expected to generate $31.5 billion in sales by 2027, with a 5.9 percent compound annual growth rate, according to Grand View Research — and sustainable beauty are getting a lot of attention from investors these days, as consumers continue to pivot toward such categories.
We Are Paradoxx, which counts a 90 percent plastic-free hair-care line coming in reusable aluminum packaging, expects to use the new funds to expand further into the U.S., hair care and body care product development, and more R&D for electrical hair tools. The latter is a market that was worth $30.1 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $39.6 billion by 2027, according to We Are Paradoxx, citing data from Fortune Business Insights.
“We Are Paradoxx believes there is serious demand for innovation in both the hair care and hair tools market from smaller, more agile brands,” the company said in a statement. “Their reactive flexibility is a strategic factor in their bid to draw consumers away from big players across the categories.”
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The brand — which is distributed in 22 markets, including the Middle East, U.S., the Baltics and Hong Kong — in 2020 registered 25 percent on-year gains. Its founder Yolanda Cooper, who wanted to create a brand that echoed the high-performance, clean skin care products she liked, attributed the strong growth to consumers’ changing views and understanding about how plastic packaging impacts the environment.
“The beauty industry produces more than 120 billion units of packaging globally, and only 9 percent of all plastic waste ever produced has been recycled,” she said in the statement. “Consumers are no longer willing to accept this ignorance of the environment and so are seeking sustainable alternatives. At the same time, they are becoming increasingly discerning when it comes to what ingredients they apply to their skin. So a high-performance, clean and sustainable option is really attractive.”
We Are Paradoxx products are meant to multitask. The brand has 10 hair care and body care products and one electronic hair tool. The company said that offer will be expanded to 26 hair care and body care products and two electrical hair tools.
Its formulas are up to 97 percent natural, including organic extracts and ingredients from Ireland, such as kelp seaweed, carrageen moss, red clover, Celtic salt, whiskey and hops.
We Are Paradoxx products are PETA-certified cruelty free, Leaping Bunny-certified vegan and toxin-free.
Prices range from 18 pounds to 30 pounds for the products to 195 pounds for the Supernova electric hair tool.
We Are Paradoxx products are sold online and through beauty retailers including Ulta, Saks Fifth Avenue, The Hut Group, Asos and Douglas.
One percent of the company’s profits go to supporting environmental causes.
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