With much of the consumer retail sector reporting first quarter earnings results over the last two weeks, most announcements reinforced the general gloom that has settled over the space since last year. Inflation, jitters about regional banks, and, most recently, tensions over the raising of the debt ceiling have all weighed on consumer confidence and […]

Shein made the news last week with a $2 billion capital raise, quite a feat.  For most companies, that would be enough to garner multiple headlines, but the biggest news in the story was that this fundraising round lowered the company’s valuation by one-third, from a $100 billion enterprise value in 2022 to $66 billion. […]

It is expected that within the next few years China will become the world’s largest luxury goods market, a distinction currently held by the U.S.  While on this path for a number of years, it seemed last year that China’s ascent may be paused.  However, fundamental economic elements and unique consumer behavior have proven that […]

With Q1 global venture capital investment down 53% y/y (according to Crunchbase), it’s encouraging to see the beauty category, which gets much of its innovation and newness from early-stage companies, continue to grow. Just last week, Circana (formerly NPD) reported that U.S. prestige beauty grew 16% y/y in Q1 and mass beauty grew 10% y/y.  […]

Over the last year, we’ve written in this space about two of the most important trends in beauty, clean beauty and biotech beauty. While those trends continue, one transaction announced last week underscored a third major trend in the space. Ceremonia, a Latinx clean hair care brand, raised $10 million in a series A led […]