GLOBE-TROTTING: FAB Ventures, the investment fund launched by Odile Roujol in 2019, will broaden its horizons beyond the U.S. — to Europe, Asia and the Middle East, WWD has learned.
Roujol, who is founding partner of FAB Co-Creation Studio Ventures and founder of the FAB Fashion and BeautyTech community, was the guest of honor at the Brands With a Mission event hosted by Karine Ohana, of Ohana & Co. investment bank, in her company headquarters on Paris’ Right Bank Wednesday morning. Other attendees included beauty entrepreneurs and investors.
Related Articles
The Ohana family, through its investment vehicle and alongside some major industry players, partnered with FAB Ventures, which Roujol started to focus on new direct-to-consumer brands in the fashion and beauty space — especially circular fashion and conscious beauty.
You May Also Like
The Ohana family runs its own investment activity with a similar ethos, alongside expanding its bank’s mergers-and-acquisitions business, which has recently included closing deals for Juliette Has a Gun, Parade, Newlight Technologies and Another Tomorrow.
FAB’s second fund, called FAB Fund II, had a first fundraising closing in October 2022, and it is due to close a second round in a few weeks.
The seed-stage fund is now investing between $250,000 and $1 million, prior to helping companies find their next investors. In total, the fund currently has $20 million to invest.
Among the investments FAB has already made is in K18 Hair, with products that protect hair during the bleaching and coloring process. It has posted sales of $80 million. Roujol was among the company’s first investors.
Another of FAB’s investment has been in Bubble, the teen skin care brand founded by Shai Eisenman. The brand today is carried in more than 10,000 doors and expanding worldwide.
Roujol was among Bubble’s first investor after business angels and bootstrapping. She also has invested in Thirteen Lune, the inclusive beauty platform founded by Nyakio Grieco and Patrick Herning, which rings up revenues of more than $20 million annually.
FAB invests in SAS software, too.
“I’m not obsessed just by consumer brands and new commerce,” Roujol said, explaining she also fixated on livestreaming and video shopping.
To wit, FAB invested in Trendio. That is a digital beauty shopping platform connecting customers with clean beauty brands via video content.
“We put artificial intelligence to extract the best parts of videos [online],” explained David Olmos, chief technology officer of Trendio, adding it’s personalized video. “We try to optimize the conversion.”
FAB has also invested in Novos, billed to be a scientific leader in longevity, with eponymous products. It focuses on biological aging, rather than chronological aging, helping people have a healthy diet, sleep well and exercise — all in a customized way.
“People understand it’s the next frontier,” said Roujol, of the blurring of beauty and wellness.
FAB has meetings with various founders together, so they can help each other.
“We are multicultural,” she said, adding of the 25 companies FAB has invested in, 23 are led by female founders or first- or second-generation immigrants in the U.S.
Roujol coaches and guides founders. “That’s what I love,” she said. “We follow on the investment to try and help them grow and to have that series A.”
For instance, FAB invested in Kintra Fibers, a material science company that creates bio-based and biodegradable polyesters. Its series A was then led by H&M.
Among other attendees at the Ohana event were Stanislas de Quercize, president and founder of the SAVIH family office; Thomas Buisson, managing director at Fable Investments; Gerard Camme, chief executive officer and founder of Element Eight; Fabienne Sebaoun, founder of Mimétique, and Pietrzak Mikolaj, cofounder of L’Atelier Parfum.