Singapore-based start-up Rainforest is looking to acquire online direct-to-consumer personal care brands from Asia Pacific in order to scale them up.
Established in January, Rainforest was launched by executives from some of South East Asia’s top start-ups, including Carousell, Airbnb, Fave and OVO.
The company describes itself as a
‘serial acquirer’, targeting e-commerce brands that have the potential to grow.
“It’s becoming increasingly easy to anyone to set up a brand. Anyone who has an idea of what’s interesting for the market can create it and entrepreneurs can start with a relatively small capital to create the brand they want,” said co-founder and CEO JJ Chai, who previously held roles at Carousell and Airbnb.
Hemp and substances derived from hemp now approved for use in commercial feed for pets, specialty pets, and horses in MontanaAs established in House Bill 396 si
Beauty ingredient manufacturer Vertellus to acquire IM Chemical Today, a definitive acquisition agreement was announced and, following regulatory approvals, the intermediates and specialty chemicals division of ESIM Chemicals will be part of the Vertellus business.
At the start of the year, Vertellus was itself acquired by Pritzker Private Capital, as Cosmetics Design reported. Now, as Thomas Chadwick, Principal at Pritzker Private Capital, tells the press
“The acquisition of IM Chemicals will expand Vertellus’ capabilities to deliver innovative specialty products and solutions to its customers.”
“IM Chemicals,” he says,
“is a strong fit with Vertellus’ strategy of using add-on acquisitions to accelerate growth in key markets, including health and beauty, coatings, specialty lubricants, as well as select food and crop protection markets.”
The University of Manchester’s biotech spin-out Holiferm is ready to scale-up production of its biosurfactants made from virgin rapeseed oil and glucose – an alternative that holds huge potential in cosmetics and personal care, its MD says.
The start-up wanted to raise €8m to build a commercial facility able to produce 1,100 tonnes of its biosurfactant per year. It hoped to close fundraising by the end of August this year and begin the commercial build by the end of 2021 or early 2022.
Richard Lock, managing director of Holiferm, said the commercial build was an important part of the startup’s longer-term vision.
istyle inc’s live commerce company Over The Border is channelling its resources into Chinese social media platform Douyin with hopes to develop it into a ‘core business in China.
Over The Border is a Multi-Channel Network (MCN) company centred on live commerce owned by Japanese beauty retail and media firm istyle Inc.
istyle is the parent company of @cosme, a Japanese beauty retailer and popular online beauty community that aggregates and rates cosmetic products.
The company has been operating in China since 2012 and launched @cosme’s online flagship store on Tmall Global in 2015.
In September 2020, Over the Border was established to help the firm recover the in-bound sales @cosme lost due to the decline in Chinese tourists. Additionally, the firm planned to use this venture as a platform to study the trends in China.