Australia’s largest beauty subscription service bellabox recently announced that it has secured over AU$3 million in funding from digital publishing company Allure Media.
bellabox plans to use the funding to expand its offering to members and brand partners through further customisation, improved targeting and more sophisticated market research.
The deal will also put bellabox in a unique position to realise synergies with Allure Media and take advantage of strategic opportunities to not only broaden its offering but also spread its reach internationally.
Jason Scott, CEO of Allure Media (a subsidiary of Fairfax Media), and Guy Reypert, Group Director of Fairfax Digital Ventures, will now join the bellabox board of Directors.
How exactly does bellabox work?
bellabox is a beauty start-up that set out on a mission to change how Australians discover, trial and purchase beauty and lifestyle products.
Every month, it delivers a sample of the latest, high-end beauty products from around the world to its members’ doorsteps, allowing them to try before they buy.
Whatever products a member like, they can head over to the bellabox website and buy.
What has bellabox achieved so far?
Founded in October 2011 by twin sisters Sarah and Emily Hamilton, bellabox has grown rapidly in three short years to claim the number one spot among beauty subscription services in Australia with a massive 70 per cent market share today.
Since its inception, it has seen a 12 per cent compound monthly growth rate in subscribers every month and now boasts over 40,000 monthly members across Australia and Singapore.
In the last 12 months alone, it has sampled over one million products from over 600 brands.
How will bellabox use this latest funding from Allure Media?
Sarah Hamilton, cofounder and CEO of bellabox (pictured above) and Lance Kalish, Chairman of bellabox both remarked that they were excited to have Allure Media come on board.
bellabox is confident that this latest funding from Allure Media will take them to the next level, allowing them to expand more aggressively.
They currently have a team of 30 across offices in Melbourne and Singapore.
Some of the funding will be used to hire more full-time staff, especially in management positions as bellabox gears up for its next stage of growth.
This will also allow them to explore launching into new markets, primarily in Asia Pacific, and to look into launching subscription services targeting other customer segments.
In preparation for its expansion, bellabox has already significantly invested in IT, designing a flexible and scalable platform that can handle the heavier traffic they hope for.
bellabox plans to further invest in their e-commerce platform, both to improve the customer experience and provide better intelligence and tools to their brand partners.
On the customer side, bellabox intends to improve their experience through better functionality, discovery tools and customer support.
For its brand partners, bellabox plans to improve its market research capabilities and targeting sophistications for more comprehensive, timely and targeted market research.
This fundraising follows the January 2013 round from a syndicate of tech, beauty, logistics and financial investors in Sydney and Melbourne, led by current investors, Yes To Carrots co-founder Lance Kalish and Trevor Folsom of Elevation Capital and Square Peg Capital.
