Source Beauty receives investment from 500 Startups and is set to revolutionize the beauty sector
Source Beauty, the leading Egyptian beauty e-commerce platform, has announced today that the company has raised pre-seed funding from 500 Startups, the most active global venture capital firm. With the newly raised funds, the e-commerce startup for locally sourced beauty products intends to deepen its platform capabilities, grow its team, and expand its footprint to regional markets.
Established in 2018, Source Beauty was founded by Lydia Schoonderbeek. With its new-to-the market business model, Source Beauty has grown its sales orders seven-fold and simultaneously increased revenues nine-fold since their launch, with an offering of over 55 local brands to-date. Over the past year, the startup has demonstrated the viability of its business concept, the fulfillment of a real market need, the loyalty of a growing customer base, accelerated business performance and it comes without surprise that this young, fresh venture received funding from 500 Startups to realize further growth.
Lydia Schoonderbeek, Founder and CEO of Source Beauty said, “We are very pleased to receive funding from 500 Startups to support Source Beauty on its growth journey. With a sustainable and scalable business model with substantial potential for further expansions, our strategy is to emulate Source Beauty’s concept in selected regional and global markets over the next three to five years. We are confident that with the support and advice of the 500 Falcons team we will be able to increase our portfolio of brands and suppliers, invest in human development, and contribute towards economic empowerment by providing a platform for local businesses to sell their products.”
Mr. Sharif El-Badawi, Managing Partner MENA, at 500 Startups said: “Our mission at 500 Startups is to back talented entrepreneurs and help them create successful companies at scale and Source Beauty is one such company. Despite the current COVID-19 situation, we are delighted to have invested in this e-commerce beauty platform. We wish Lydia and her team the very best and look forward to seeing them scale their business to the next level and excel in the near future.”
From an economic standpoint, it is undeniable that Egypt’s beauty industry has a positive contribution to the Egyptian economy, with an anticipated market size in excess of USD 200 million. Schoonderbeek explains, “Millennial consumers use social media platforms to keep up with beauty trends and for purchase motivation. Source Beauty guides them and focuses on building a personalized relationship with each of its customers’ beauty needs providing a user-friendly browsing and buying experience. Despite the current unfortunate pandemic situation, we have seen growth in our customer base and sales numbers.”
Lydia also commented on the importance of supporting local products. “The local beauty market remains widely untapped and growing year-on-year at around 15 to 20%. Keen on shaping the market while capturing a major share, we’ve introduced monthly beauty subscription boxes, a pillar in our value proposition, providing women with high-quality local alternatives that are affordable. Later on, in the year, we look forward to having further investors who support such initiatives to join us onboard.”
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COVID-19 further suppressed the number of deals in MENA-based startups in April but total funding increased by 202% as EMPG joined MENA’s unicorn list by raising $150M from existing shareholders. Learn more details in MAGNiTT’s April 2020 Dashboard.