Content-to-commerce company The Good Glamm Group has formed a joint venture with former tennis player turned entrepreneur Serena Williams to launch her cosmetics brand ‘Wyn Beauty by Serena Williams’ in the US market. The entity, SW-Sanghvi Beauty USA Inc., which has board representation from both Williams’ team as well as the Mumbai-based The Good Glamm Group, owns Wyn Beauty and other related trademarks for the brand.
It will be The Good Glamm Group’s first expansion into the international market, its founder, Darpan Sanghvi, told ET. Wyn Beauty will focus on the US market for the first 12 months and will look to launch in India and other global markets subsequently.
While the JV partnership entails equity investment from both sides, Sanghvi said they will work together in aspects such as marketing, product development, distribution and supply chain. “We have collectively set up a local US team,” he said.
The brand will be launching in 685 stores of Ulta Beauty, which is among the largest brick-and-mortar beauty retailers in the US.
With this, Williams, who already has brands in the fashion space, joins the likes of Rihanna and Selena Gomez who own beauty brands under their names.
Rihanna’s ‘Fenty Beauty’ was launched in 2017 in partnership with luxury conglomerate LVMH, while Gomez’s ‘Rare Beauty’ was launched with LVMH subsidiary Sephora.
Fenty Beauty and Rare Beauty are now available in India across beauty marketplaces such as Nykaa and Sephora India.
“About six years ago, I started working on the brand in earnest while still playing tennis,” Williams, told ET. “It was during the pandemic, and we were mostly at home or virtual (when not playing matches), so I had more time to really build it out.”
She said, “Good Glamm’s shared belief that brands should be inclusive, purpose-driven and impactful for the communities they serve made them a great launch partner.”
Wyn Beauty will offer ‘high-performance’ makeup products tailored to diverse skin tones, focusing the African American consumer base. These products will be priced between $20 and $30.
“We are looking at international business contributing between 25% and 35% to the total group revenues by the end of next year,” The Good Glamm Group’s Sanghvi said. Over the last three years, the company has invested about Rs 250 crore in its international business.
Wyn Beauty will add to the company’s portfolio of brands, which include MyGlamm, The Moms Co, Organic Harvest, Sirona, St Botanica and Baby Chakra, in addition to several digital media and content products.
Sanghvi highlighted that MyGlamm remains the company’s primary revenue contributor, constituting 35-40% of its total revenue, while other acquired brands contribute 15-17% each.
Celebrity-led brands are growing in numbers globally. Jennifer Lopez owns JLo Beauty, Gwyneth Paltrow runs Goop, while Kim Kardashian’s apparel brand Skims raised $270 million in July 2023, valuing it at $4 billion.
In India, too, the trend has picked up, particularly in the beauty and fashion space. Some Bollywood A-listers, including Katrina Kaif, Priyanka Chopra, Alia Bhatt, Deepika Padukone and Anushka Sharma, have launched their ventures–Kay Beauty, Anomaly, Ed-a-mamma, 82E, and Nush, respectively.
However, according to a Bloomberg report in March 2023, several such celebrity-driven beauty and personal care brands in the US lost steam coming out from a post-Covid high liquidity scenario. These included Kristen Bell’s Happy Dance and Ariana Grande’s r.e.m. beauty.
