07.30.21
True Beauty Ventures L.P., a beauty- and wellness-dedicated fund, has closed its debut fund, surpassing its initial target of $30 million. It topped $42 million, according to leaders, which include PE and beauty industry veterans Rich Gersten and Cristina Nuñez.
True Beauty currently has six investments to date: hair care brands Aquid, Crown Affair and K18 Hair (hair care), Kinship (a skin care that has expanded into suncare), Feals (DTC CBD), intimacy brand Maude and another clean makeup brand that is soon to launch.
"We launched True Beauty to leverage our unique beauty-focused investing and operating experience and the extensive beauty ecosystem I had built over many years. That is our unfair advantage," said Gersten, who is co-founder and managing partner. "We connect with our founders on a deeper level because we truly understand their businesses and can help accelerate growth, while avoiding costly mistakes along the way."
Gersten and Nuñez have worked together several times in the past. Gersten was a former partner at private equity firms Tengram Capital, L Catterton and North Castle Partners. Nuñez has a combination of consumer private equity investing experience at Tengram Capital and L Catterton as well as beauty operating experience as an executive at Clark's Botanicals and Laura Geller Beauty.
"As a Latinx female cofFounder and general partner, I am part of the 2.4% of US-based VC founding partners who are women, a staggering statistic reported by Women in VC," said Nuñez. "We need people on both sides of the table, the investment decision makers and the brand founders, to reflect the markets they serve. To date, I am proud that our firm is majority female and over 80% of our current partner brands have women or minority founders."
True Beauty currently has six investments to date: hair care brands Aquid, Crown Affair and K18 Hair (hair care), Kinship (a skin care that has expanded into suncare), Feals (DTC CBD), intimacy brand Maude and another clean makeup brand that is soon to launch.
"We launched True Beauty to leverage our unique beauty-focused investing and operating experience and the extensive beauty ecosystem I had built over many years. That is our unfair advantage," said Gersten, who is co-founder and managing partner. "We connect with our founders on a deeper level because we truly understand their businesses and can help accelerate growth, while avoiding costly mistakes along the way."
Gersten and Nuñez have worked together several times in the past. Gersten was a former partner at private equity firms Tengram Capital, L Catterton and North Castle Partners. Nuñez has a combination of consumer private equity investing experience at Tengram Capital and L Catterton as well as beauty operating experience as an executive at Clark's Botanicals and Laura Geller Beauty.
"As a Latinx female cofFounder and general partner, I am part of the 2.4% of US-based VC founding partners who are women, a staggering statistic reported by Women in VC," said Nuñez. "We need people on both sides of the table, the investment decision makers and the brand founders, to reflect the markets they serve. To date, I am proud that our firm is majority female and over 80% of our current partner brands have women or minority founders."