SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Iris&Romeo, a women-founded, led and run beauty brand pioneering clean, all-in-one skincare-meets-makeup hybrid products, today announced its partnership with early stage venture capital firm BRANDPROJECT to help aid continued product innovation, brand growth and new hires for Iris&Romeo.
“We’re problem solving for the busy modern woman, so she doesn’t have to make sacrifices,” said Michele Gough Baril, Founder and CEO of Iris&Romeo. “For decades, we’ve been sold a more-is-more approach to beauty. Life is overwhelming enough without a 10-step routine or drawers full of useless clutter that eventually ends up in the landfill. We took a smarter approach and streamlined her routine into a more sustainable edit of all-in-one hero products that are as easy to use as throwing on a moisturizer and deliver a healthy, no makeup look. It’s been super exciting to see how our thoughtfulness really resonates with our community, and witness so much organic love and growth as a result.”
Iris&Romeo customers fueled growth for the indie clean beauty brand that launched four months prior to a global pandemic, while consumer trends drastically shifted for the beauty industry as a whole. In 2020, Iris&Romeo’s sales surpassed their expectations, despite no new product introductions and minimal marketing spend. In addition, 55% of revenue to date has come from non-paid efforts, proving strong word of mouth. Due to the shift in beauty purchase trends throughout 2020 to minimalist, efficacious routines, BrandProject seized an opportunity to align itself with a rapidly growing brand that speaks to these core values.
“While Michele’s prior experience as VP of Brand & Consumer Engagement at Smashbox certainly established her credibility, we were compelled by her mission of producing products that combined high performance skincare and makeup for an all-in-one solution,” said Manica Blain, Venture Partner at BrandProject. “The Iris&Romeo brand Michele is creating deeply resonates with a community of busy women who seek simplification in their routines, yet still expect efficacy, and without the luxury price tag. We love that Michele has organically built a growing and loyal consumer base looking to align itself with a brand based on the core values of modern women, and we're thrilled about this next chapter of growth.”
The brand launched its first product in Q4-2019, Best Skin Days, a 5-in-1 skincare-makeup-SPF hybrid, which quickly solidified itself as a hero product due to its ability to replace 5 products in a woman’s morning routine. Funds from BRANDPROJECT’s investment will be used to capitalize on Best Skin Days’ early success and recruit a team to help the Iris&Romeo brand scale through the development of additional products in the hybrid skincare-meets-cosmetics category. Consumers and brand advocates alike can expect to see this new innovation as early as July 2021.
The BRANDPROJECT team — who were the first institutional investors in household names like Daily Harvest, Freshly and Hello Products — will support the Iris&Romeo brand with day-to-day operational support and leadership in key functions such as marketing, strategy, technology and finance.
Iris&Romeo prides itself on producing products free of PEGS, parabens, phthalates, chemical sunscreens, cyclic silicones, formaldehydes, mineral oil, retinyl palmitate, sulfates, SLS & SLES, synthetic fragrance and flavors. All Iris&Romeo products are cruelty-free and made in the U.S.A. Packaging is recyclable, and made from glass and FSC certified paper waste. For more information on Iris&Romeo, please visit irisandromeo.com and follow @irisandromeo on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
About Iris&Romeo
Founded, led and run by women, Iris&Romeo was born from Michele Gough Baril’s belief that women can liberate themselves from outdated beauty industry ideals and limited choices by working together to support female-crafted and oriented beauty solutions. Bolstering a quickly growing multi-use line-up of clean, all-in-one skincare and makeup hybrid products, Iris&Romeo combines clean ingredients and luxurious textures to support high-efficacy formulas to minimize women’s routines while maximizing results. Iris&Romeo is leading the movement toward keeping our planet clean, our beauty formulas free of toxins, and simplifying our lives because women have bigger and better things to do! Iris&Romeo is available for purchase nationwide and in Puerto Rico at IrisandRomeo.com.
About BRANDPROJECT
BrandProject invests in and supports exceptional early-stage founders today, as they build, launch and scale the iconic consumer brands of tomorrow. We are one of North America’s leading early-stage investors focused on making investments in next generation consumer product, service, and technology companies. BrandProject’s unique model blends support for strategic planning, operational capacity building, brand and marketing depth and more to maximize brand and business value alongside founders. Drawing upon more than seven decades of global brand expertise across a diverse range of global category leaders, the BrandProject team identifies market disruptor investment opportunities from pre-seed to series A. For more information, visit www.brandproject.com.
