Beautycon Media Inc.’s belongings have been acquired by an affiliate of Essence Ventures.
For years, Beautycon drew 1000’s of magnificence fans to its buzzy, namesake festivals, nevertheless it struggled to seek out its footing earlier than and throughout the coronavirus pandemic. The firm confronted a civil go well with in February 2020 and reportedly laid off half of its employees the next month, when COVID-19 pressured nationwide lockdowns.
Moj Mahdara, who turned Beautycon’s chief govt officer after investing within the enterprise in 2014, resigned from her place earlier this 12 months. Essence Ventures acquired the corporate out of foreclosures, after it filed for an project for the advantage of collectors course of (an alternative choice to chapter) in May.
Marina Curry will return to Beautycon, which she cofounded in 2011 with Jonathon Burford. News of Essence Ventures’ acquisition of Beautycon was first reported by The Wrap.
In-person magnificence occasions have been on maintain throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, for essentially the most half. Beautycon’s most up-to-date occasion was in August 2019. This 12 months, Sephora’s Sephoria will likely be a digital competition.
Richelieu Dennis, founder and chair of Essence Ventures, advised WWD by way of telephone that Beautycon would proceed to be an “experience business” — “whether virtual experiences, hybrid experiences” — with each native and world enlargement to return.
“The pandemic has impacted the live experience space in multiple ways,” Dennis stated. “It has clearly hindered the flexibility for folks to assemble. It has additionally created lots of vitality and innovation round how folks collect at the moment. Whether it’s digital experiences, hybrid experiences, all of these will likely be part of the expertise enterprise going ahead. With the applied sciences that we’ve put in place, we’ll have the ability to expound on the Beautycon beliefs and values and proceed upon the work that Beautycon has been doing these years.
“As we move further into a new normal, there’s tremendous opportunity to do these live and virtual experiences in a physical way that expands the reach that brings the inclusive nature of Beautycon to the globe, as well as localized,” Dennis continued. “We will have local as well as global expansion.”
Essence Ventures’ portfolio contains Afropunk, the humanities competition, and Essence Communications Inc., which operates Essence Festival, which started as a music competition in 1995.
Dennis stated he sees alternative to additional scale Beautycon, which he known as “the premiere beauty experience.”
“We will endeavor to bring that vision alive and certainly welcome the input of the people who created the vision and how we leverage that vision to go broader and bigger,” Dennis stated. “The Essence Festival has scaled over the past [26 years]. Beautycon is as important from a vision perspective. The brand now gets the opportunity to have an impact on even more people. That’s what we look for within our portfolio: inclusivity and impact.”
More from WWD.com:
Amid Challenges, What’s Next for Beautycon?
Beautycon Faces Mounting Pressure, But Its Problems Predate Coronavirus
Instagram Account Demands Beautycon CEO Moj Mahdara Step Down
Cardi B Shares Her Money Advice and Money Problems at Beautycon
