Birchbox France bought by its founders and French investment fund

The French subsidiary of US online subscription beauty kit specialist Birchbox announced on Wednesday it has been bought by its two co-founders, in partnership with the Otium Capital investment fund. Birchbox was founded in 2010 in the USA, and since 2011 it has been operating in France, where it merged with JolieBox, created by Quentin Reygrobellet and Martin Balas.

Reygrobellet and Balas, respectively the CEO and COO of Birchbox France, “have partnered with Otium Capital to acquire Birchbox France, which has become an independent company,” stated the French company in a press release. Birchbox France added that being independent will help accelerate its expansion, notably relying on “personalisation” by tapping its customer database, and on an increasingly directional selection of partner brands (they are currently 300) for its catalogue.

“Within the booming digital beauty market, Birchbox has been and remains the player with the fastest growth rate in France” with a revenue rising by 20% in 2019, said Reygrobellet in the press release.

Birchbox France, 60% of whose revenue comes from subscriptions and 40% from its e-tail site, has been profitable since 2016, according to a spokesperson. Otium Capital is headed by French entrepreneur Pierre-Edouard Stérin, founder among others of gift-box company Smartbox. The independent company’s “first project” will be finding a new name: “while the company still holds the license to exploit the Birchbox brand in France for 18 months, a rebranding effort will begin in the next few weeks,” stated Birchbox France in the press release, also claiming it has “a base of over 220,000 monthly subscribers.”

In 2020, the company plans to expand in Europe, and is also working to deploy “premium” services in the course of the year.