Black-Owned Digital Beauty Retailer Raises Additional $8 Million To Energize Expansion

A digital platform that supports Black and Brown-founded beauty brands, thirteen lune closed on an $8 million seed-plus investment round that will help it expand.

The Black-owned beauty retailer has grown fast since starting in 2020. It has evolved from an e-commerce destination featuring 13 foundational, Black-founded brands to now offering 160-plus beauty brands, per a news release. Some 90% of its sellers are BIPOC-founded; 10% are ally brands.

This year’s plans call for thirteen lune to expand into 600 JCPenney locations nationwide as well as open its own flagship store in Los Angeles.

The platform reported that it had 2000%-plus sales growth in 2022 over 2021, which was fueled by the launch of its first private label brand, Relevant: Your Skin Seen and the expansion of its in-store partnership with JCPenney Beauty. Further, it added nationally recognized BIPOC-founded brands to its platform, including Ami Colé, Buttah Skin, and Pattern Beauty by Tracee Ellis Ross.

Now, thirteen lune plans to use the fresh capital with participation from The BrainTrust Fund to support the online beauty site’s omnichannel expansion in 2023. The scaling up is anticipated to include the new Los Angeles store opening, more retail offerings, and enlarging the Relevant brand. The new capital, along with an initial seed round led by the Black-owned Fearless Fund, represents $12.5 million in total invested funds.

It also expects to reach profitability this year with the latest investment.

“As a 20-plus year Black beauty entrepreneur, it’s an honor to shape the landscape of inclusive beauty, acting as an agent of change for BIPOC brand founders to receive recognition and opportunity,” thirteen lune Co-Founder Nyakio Grieco said in a release. “Our partners share Thirteen Lune’s mission to support diverse founders who have historically had fewer resources and opportunities to build a business and create generational wealth.”

Reflecting on its growth since 2020, thirteen lune CEO and Co-Founder Patrick Herning stated, “we’ve proven that inclusivity and scalability are not mutually exclusive. With a mission to inspire the discovery of BIPOC-founded brands for people of all colors and backgrounds, we enter 2023 continuing to lead with intention and authenticity that will position us to continue our growth and momentum.”

Thirteen Lune reports Initial investments came from the Fearless Fund, Capstar Ventures, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Gwyneth Paltrow, Hannah Bronfman, and Naomi Watts.