Belfast hair care group receives £4m from Lotus Herbals and Aircore Ventures

Based in Belfast, the group received £1.25 million from Northern Ireland renewables investment firm Aircore Ventures and the remainder from Indian beauty conglomerate Lotus Herbals.

The investment will allow The Conscious Beauty Group, which specialises in natural, vegan and high-performance hair and body products, to further penetrate the US market and extend into the sustainable personal care and wellness category with future innovation.

Encompassing hair care brands We are Paradoxx and Supernova, the group will also launch Supernova Hair Tools, its first electrical hair tools brand and behind the world’s first patent-pending, attachment-free, 3-in-1 hair straightener, wave wand and curling tong.

Belfast’s Aircore Ventures was established in 2020 by Brendan Boyd as a spin out from his renewable energy development company Air Core Ltd.

Aircore Ventures has grown its global venture capital investment portfolio to over £20 million and its values align with The Conscious Beauty Group’s drive for sustainable and plastic free innovation within the global beauty industry.

Brendan said: “Driving sustainability and promoting clean innovation are key objectives for us at Aircore Ventures, so it made good ethical as well as business sense for us to partner with the Conscious Beauty Group.

"The investment we have provided to the company will allow it to focus on development and grow its product line while enabling further penetration of global markets to achieve its ambitious growth targets.”

Despite 2021/2022 being a challenging time in business, We are Paradoxx also secured a number of international distributor partnerships to contribute to its future growth including territories such as Scandinavia, Germany and Turkey as well as the travel retail industry and a launch in Asia planned for Q1 2023.

The company now works with some of the world’s leading beauty retailers such as Sephora, QVC TV Shopping, Ulta Beauty and has recently secured a partnership with Target in the USA and has achieved sales of nearly £3 million.

Founder Yolanda Cooper believes that the growing demand for purpose driven brands with sustainable beauty products has played a part in the business’s success to date.

An inventor, serial entrepreneur and environmental activist, she explained: “We are delighted to have Aircore join as our first strategic investment partner in the eco-space. As consumer demand for sustainable beauty rises, so does the presence of greenwashing. Consumers are growing wise to this and are challenging brands to be more transparent in their efforts, which puts the Conscious Beauty Group in a strong position as a global leader in plastic free, sustainable beauty. We are committed to growing our business while maintaining and improving our sustainability efforts, and Aircore will be a fantastic partner to support this.”

We are Paradoxx is making inroads in a global luxury hair care market.

The Conscious Beauty Group is also initiating crowdfunding through Seedrs. This gives an opportunity for their customers and wider community to invest from less than £20 and own a part of the group of companies.