Glossier isn’t just relying on retail to expand its reach.
The U.S.-based beauty brand, which has opened new retail doors in key markets as well as kicked off its partnership with Sephora, is expanding its grant program for Black-owned brands to the U.K. in partnership with the culture festival Black Girl Fest.
Applications open Monday and close May 9. From there, five founders will be selected for a 10,000 pound equity-free grant, and partake in a 12-week curriculum on scaling businesses with access to Glossier’s leadership team and external partners.
The program’s U.S. iteration, in its third year, just closed its application deadline. Thus far, that program has included 30 founders across 26 beauty brands, to which the reception has been “overwhelmingly positive,” said Kleo Mack, chief marketing officer of Glossier. “What sets the program apart is the access to our leadership, the time we give within the program, and the connections we’re able to make with our external partners. The key piece is to keep [the founders] in the Glossier family — we’ve had them come to our store openings and continue to do programming with them.”
Past recipients include Luna Magic, Skimdo and Range Beauty, among others.
The U.K. is a priority market for the brand, Mack said, adding that Black founders in the U.K. are only getting roughly 1 percent of venture capital, and that number is declining. To that end, Glossier tapped Black Girl Fest, a U.K.-based arts and culture festival for Black women, girls and nonbinary people to execute the program.
“There are so many gaps to see the future that founders are looking for,” said Nicole Crentsil, founder of Black Girl Fest. “The transition from starting out making products in the kitchen to being a full-fledged business is a big jump for businesses in the U.K., and the biggest issue is access to funding. I operate as an angel investor, and I often hear there isn’t a market for Black beauty consumers, or that the technology isn’t interesting. Many investors and VCs steer away from d-to-c [direct-to-consumer] brands, and that’s where angel investors have a real opportunity.”
Crentsil said a key differentiator of the program is also peer-to-peer learning with other founders. “It’s generating a community of like-minded Black women you can learn from,” Crentsil said, adding that founders can “also leverage insights from the darlings of the industry to see how these businesses can take themselves to the next level.”
Glossier as a whole is performing well, Mack said. “We’re activating our omnichannel strategy. The goal is to bring Glossier to more people, via expanding store footprints and opening in Sephora stores. We’ve seen an incredible response from our community,” she said. “We continue to focus on our hero products, like Glossier You, which sells one every 43 seconds, we are still the market leader for cheek in cloud paint, and continuing to open more doors.”