L Catterton is betting once again on the founders of Tula Skincare.
The private equity firm has just made a “significant” growth investment in color cosmetics brand Dibs Beauty, launched in September 2021 by Tula Skincare founders Ken Landis (who also cofounded Bobbi Brown Cosmetics) and Dan Reich, with Austin, Texas-based influencer Courtney Shields and former chief operating officer of A-Rod Corp Jeff Lee. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“L Catterton has the expertise and agility to help us become the leader in multifunctional, effortless makeup,” said Lee, chief executive officer of Dibs. “Our makeup goes where our customers go, and we intend to meet them both across our rapidly expanding digital channels and in brick-and-mortar retailers.”
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Shields added: “The reason this partnership is so special is because Jeff is a product-first CEO and I’m a business-first creative.”
L Catterton previously partnered with Tula, a probiotic, superfoods-based skin care line, in 2017. It was acquired last year by Procter & Gamble for an undisclosed amount.
And in 2021, Dibs raised $2.6 million in an initial round of funding from investors including L Catterton partners Michael Farello and Jonathan Owsley, who invested individually and not with the company.
“We were in touch with them, continued to be good friends and had been business partners so when we heard about what they were doing in a category that we find super interesting, with a ton of growth and tailwind and bringing to market an incredibly well-positioned brand ….we just looked at that whole package and we’re like, wow, this is really something special,” Owsley said.
Headquartered in Austin, Dibs Beauty’s most popular products include the Desert Island Duos, $36, and Status Sticks, also $36. The brand’s first-ever tool, the multipurpose Duo Brush 15, has sold out multiple times since its launch in September 2022 and currently has a waitlist of more than 50,000 people, Dibs said.
The brand launched with its first retailer, Revolve, in July 2022, and next up will be brick-and-mortar expansion.
“We are planning on brick-and-mortar in the near future,” Lee added. “The brand has received an enormous amount of inbound interest from major retailers over the past few months, and our priority is selecting the right partner to grow together the way we have with Revolve.”
He declined to comment on sales projections, but sources expect it to bring in between $15 million to $20 million in revenue on direct-to-consumer alone. According to the company, it has grown more than 450 percent year-over-year through selling directly to consumers on their own website.
In January, L Catterton sold Bliss World to AS Beauty. L Catterton purchased the brand as part of its 2015 acquisition of Steiner Leisure.