Glossier Inc is now valued at $1.2 billion, making it the latest tech start-up to become a unicorn. Launching in 2014 out of founder Emily Weiss’s beauty blog Into The Gloss, Glossier instantly transformed the beauty landscape with its direct-to-consumer model, playful aesthetic and enormous social-media community, and expanded into the UK in 2017. Bloomberg reports that, in its latest round of funding, Glossier raised $100 million from investors led by Sequoia Capital, and now has 200 employees.
“Baby me in 2014 wasn’t sure if we could afford the next hire, didn’t know if anyone would like her idea for a beauty company, was engaged to be married, and hardly knew a venture capitalist from a bank teller,” Weiss, who remains CEO of the company, said on Instagram. “Emily in 2019 has been through hell and high water to build an incredible company with incredible people, endured heartbreak and experienced new love, and been among a very small minority of women raising this kind of money at these kinds of prices, to build the things they believe in. Today Glossier was able to achieve something very special. And all it means, is that we get to keep building things that make people happy. On this day especially, I am so excited to say: go team go.”
Glossier introduced sub-brand Glossier Play earlier this month, branching into more highly-pigmented colour cosmetics, whilst a new Mango Balm Dotcom joined the original Glossier brand just yesterday. Within just five years Glossier has transformed selfies and shelfies the world over with its minimalist packaging and no-make-up-make-up products, as well as adopting a friendly, inclusive and conversational tone with which to communicate directly with its consumers. Following the launch of Glossier Play there was outcry over the amount of plastic packaging used, which the brand instantly promised to re-evaluate, responding directly to its followers’ comments and DMs on Instagram rather than releasing a statement. By honing its aesthetic to perfection, engaging with its community and by keeping product innovation at its heart, Glossier has turned over unprecedented revenue, garnered incredible investment and made an indelible, millennial-pink stamp on the beauty industry.
