WAAM Cosmetics offers an innovative and transparent approach to beauty, highlighting natural ingredients, to be used alone or assembled in recipes that the brand shares on its e-shop. The company has just raised 5 million euros from We Positive Invest 2, the new impact fund launched by Arkéa Capital a few weeks ago, and Karot Capital, an early stage investment specialist. The aim of this fundraising is to accelerate the company's development, at a time when it is launching Magic Powders, a new range of powdered hygiene products.
Founded in 2016 by Dieynaba Ndoye, WAAM Cosmetics,contraction of 'we are all métis' is the specialist in DiY (do-it-yourself) cosmetics, based on a multicultural, sober and transparent approach to beauty at the antipodes of industry practices. By highlighting nature's ingredients, inspired by beauty rituals from around the world, the French company has chosen to develop a range of 100% natural mono-ingredients and neutral bases, certified organic, vegan and multi-purpose, which can be used alone or assembled to make your own beauty products, according to your desires, based on over 200 recipes formulated by WAAM Cosmetics. Thus, consumers become actors of a healthy and transparent beauty routine by minimizing the environmental impact.
WAAM Cosmetics attaches great importance to the selection of its raw materials, according to very strict specifications, favoring fair trade and mostly organic products. The brand also attaches particular importance to the packaging of its products, favoring recycled and recyclable bottles and jars, manufactured in Europe, thus enabling it to limit its carbon footprint.
Going further to limit the environmental footprint, WAAM Cosmetics launched on June 15 a new range of powder products composed of 100% of active ingredients of natural origin that turn into foam when in contact with water (toothpaste, shower powder, shampoo and facial cleanser). Packaged in eco-designed glass and aluminum-based packaging, 100% recyclable and refillable, these active powders are developed without water. This is a real innovation for the cosmetics sector, where water represents between 60 and 90% of the components of the products available on the market, and which makes it possible to offer packaging that is much smaller than that of the conventional industry, thus significantly reducing the tonnage of products transported, and therefore the environmental impact.
As for the 5 M€ raised, it will allow WAAM Cosmetics to accelerate its development, both commercial and product. Indeed, the company has the particularity to internalize the development of its products, the packaging as well as all the commercial and marketing development. WAAM Cosmetics joins two new investors, Arkea Capital and Pierre Cazaux, founder of the Dragon Rouge agency, alongside Dieynaba Ndoye and Karot Capital, its investor since 2020, who also subscribes to the operation.
Dieynaba Ndoye, Director and founder of WAAM Cosmetics: " We are very proud to have the support of Arkéa Capital via its We Positive Invest fund, which reinforces our fight for more responsible cosmetics. We work daily to find solutions to reduce the environmental impact of one of the world's most polluting industries. Whether by systematically excluding controversial ingredients, reducing packaging and promoting their recyclability. But also by taking care to preserve natural resources as much as possible, as is the case with the launch of Magic Powders, our brand new range of powder skincare products which are formulated without using water, a vital resource for the planet, whose fragility we know today. This fundraising will allow us to persevere in this virtuous approach, new launches are already scheduled for 2023, and to accelerate our development in France but also internationally, notably by strengthening our teams. "
