I identified 19 companies in the beauty space that raised at least $2.5m in Q1 2026, totalling just over $180m collectively raised.
The largest disclosed round of the quarter, $70m, went to American AI-driven fragrance startup Osmo. The company filed more fragrance patents in 2025 than all major perfume houses combined and will use the new capital to expand its proprietary scent-molecule discovery platform, while also bringing in several seasoned industry executives to accelerate commercial growth.
The second largest, $31m, was raised by French personal care brand Evoluderm from private equity firm NextStage AM. Evoluderm tripled its revenue over three years to nearly €40m in 2025 and plans to use the funding to grow its physical and digital footprint both in France and internationally.
In terms of geographies US and India each produced seven companies that received investment, making them the most active countries. That split lends concrete weight to Unilever’s stated strategy of concentrating its own beauty investment on those two markets.
K-Beauty remained resilient with Memebox raising $10m and Jiyu raising $6.5m. Another emerging pattern is the rise of brands with Latin roots, exemplified by Nopalera, a Mexican brand built around the nopal cactus, and Ceremonia, a haircare label drawing on Latin American heritage.
Finally across skincare and haircare pure players, the common thread is science‑backed formulations while the two makeup brands that raised money were created by a celebrity makeup artist.
A few words about the methodology I used to create the infographic: the data came from Crunchbase and Pitchbook, supplemented by the weekly Playbook of Beauty newsletter. I excluded supplement‑focused companies (such as Mosaic Wellness), tech platforms not exclusively dedicated to beauty (like Statusphere), and all acquisitions (like Forest Essentials). Only pure fundraising operations with a public ticket size made the cut hence no Live Tinted or KilgourMD in the ranking since the size of the round were not public.