How to win £150,000 for your beauty business start-up

A new £150,000 funding competition has opened for beauty businesses who are based in the UK. Find out if you're eligible and how to apply

Beauty brand consultancy, The Red Tree, is giving one beauty start-up the chance to win £150,000.

The firm has partnered with SFC Capital to launch The Beauty Accelerator. As well as the funding, the winning business will get knowledge and expertise from The Red Tree for 12 months, helping your beauty start-up get to the next stage.

Speaking about the launch, Stirling Murray, managing director of The Red Tree said; “We are extremely excited about The Beauty Accelerator. There is an incredibly vibrant independent beauty brand scene in the UK with dynamic entrepreneurs driving game-changing innovation and creating disruptive brands.

“We will give one of these brands the chance to dramatically accelerate their growth through significant investment from SFC Capital and a year-long collaborative partnership with The Red Tree. Our world class team has a wealth of commercial beauty experience and will provide strategic insights as well as access to a wide network of beauty industry contacts”.

Stephen Page, CEO of SFC Capital said “The beauty sector has been disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 lockdown, and it is important we help activity return to normal in this highly innovative and dynamic industry. At SFC we are always on the lookout for impressive companies that will become world leaders in their field, and we are confident we will see some incredible applications for this accelerator.”

The Beauty Accelerator is the first programme of its kind in the UK.

How do I enter The Beauty Accelerator?

The competition is open to beauty businesses that are based and registered in the UK as well as being registered for SEIS. Applications open on August 24 and end on September 25. From there, shortlisted brands will be invited to take part in an interview with The Red Tree and SFC Capital during the week commencing September 28. Five businesses will attend The Beauty Accelerator final on Wednesday October 21 and Thursday October 22 to pitch to The Red Tree and SFC Capital directly.

You can’t be in the process of applying for another accelerator or incubator during the period of August 2020 and August 2021.

Full terms and details of how to enter can be found on The Red Tree website.

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Anna Jordan

Anna is Senior Reporter, covering topics affecting SMEs such as grant funding, managing employees and the day-to-day running of a business.