Oddity, the parent company of Il Makiage and Spoiled Child, has acquired Boston-based biotechnology startup Revela for $76 million.
With the acquisition and an additional $25 million investment, the company will establish Oddity Labs in Boston.
The move marks the company’s third acquisition since its inception in 2018. It also bought Voyage81, a hyper-spectral imaging software company in 2021 for more than $40 million, and NeoWize, a data science start-up based in Israel in 2019 for an undisclosed amount.
“Oddity is deploying its strong balance sheet to continue reinventing the beauty and wellness market and cement our competitive advantage and technology moat,” said Oran Holtzman, Oddity’s cofounder and chief executive officer of its latest deal. “With the acquisition of Revela we are doubling down on innovation, but this time around science-backed product development and bringing proven pharma-grade technology to beauty and wellness. The combination of Oddity’s technology and Revela’s science is a game changer for the industry.”
Founded in 2021, Revela is a biotechnology platform that discovers new molecules for consumer wellness applications using artificial intelligence. According to its founders, it has hundreds of molecules in its development pipeline that could be used in beauty and wellness products. Its existing suite of new molecules will be integrated into Oddity’s current and future brands, and further developed to find next-generation solutions, the company said. The molecules will not be available for sale to other companies, Holtzman confirmed — which is different than other biotechnology companies in beauty, who often use ingredients for their own brands and sell them to other beauty companies.
One of Revela’s patented ingredients is ProCelinyl, a novel small molecule that is meant to support dermal papilla cells and bring hair follicles to a more vibrant state. Another is Fibroquin, which is said to support the pro-collagen pathway in skin to promote skin elasticity and plumpness.
“We founded Revela to change the beauty and wellness industry, which has stagnated from underinvestment in science and technology. While biotechnology has broken new ground in molecule discovery, beauty and wellness has fallen behind for decades, and is serving consumers repackaged versions of suboptimal ingredients that have been used for decades. Together with Oddity and its unparalleled technology and online capabilities, we will change this paradigm and redefine the industry,” said Dr. Evan Zhao, Revela cofounder and CEO.
Oddity Labs will be led by the Revela founding team, with Zhao as chief scientific officer; Dr. David Zhang, Revela’s chief science officer, as head of bioengineering and Avi Boppana, Revela’s chief technology officer, as head of platform. Part of Zhao’s remit will be exploring further acquisition opportunities in the biotech space.
This acquisition comes as speculation continues about Oddity’s plans for an initial public offering. WWD previously reported that in 2020 Il Makiage was working with Centerview Partners to explore deal options, including a potential sale or IPO. While it confirmed this at the time, it has not made any public comments on a potential IPO since, and Holtzman declined to provide an update on the process.
In January 2022, Oddity, which has a staff of around 300, not including Revela, with tech comprising 40 percent of the head count, closed a secondary funding round of $130 million, valuing the company at $1.5 billion. The round was led by Thomas Tull, Franklin Templeton, Fidelity Management and First Light Capital Group.
According to the company, Oddity saw gross sales of $395 million in 2022. Spoiled Child, the hair care and skin care brand, made $48 million in gross sales in its first year, the company said.
Holtzman told WWD that he plans to open a new brand every 18 months, with the next one likely next year.