Online beauty products company IL Makiage parent company Oddity announced today that it has sold 9% of its shares for $130 million to investment funds led by Thomas Tull, Franklin Templeton, Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC and First Light Capital Group, with participation from additional growth equity investors. So just nine years after IL Makiage was liquidated in the Tel Aviv District Court, the company now has a valuation of nearly $1.5 billion.
IL Makiage was founded in Israel in 1996 and operated through a chain of stores. After going into liquidation in 2013, the company was acquired by former E&Y CPA Oran Holtzman for NIS 12 million after reaching agreements with the company's creditors. Four years later L Catterton invested $34 million in IL Makiage at a company valuation of $100 million. The following year, IL Makiage launched its online sales website. The company claims it uses AI technology to achieve a 90% success rate in finding the most suitable shades for customer's skin coloring.
The Covid pandemic and the shift to online sales worldwide has boosted the company, which saw revenue double last year to $270 million from $135 million.
Holtzman told "Globes," "Within just three years since our US launch, we have succeeded in moving millions of customers from buying in stores to buying online. IL Makiage is today one of the world's fastest growing online brands with about 80% of our revenue coming from the US and 20% from England, Israel, Canada, Germany and the rest of the world."
The aim of the sale of shares to large US private equity funds is to become better known ahead of a potential IPO on Wall Street. All the funds raised in the latest financing round will go to purchase the shares of Holtzman and Catterton, rather than into the company for investment.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 10, 2022.
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