LYS Beauty, the clean makeup brand launched four years ago by beauty industry veteran Tisha Thompson that’s on the move at Sephora, has landed series A funding to support retail distribution, global expansion, inventory procurement and team building.
Encore Consumer Capital, the San Francisco private equity firm that has helped scale Supergoop, Tarte Cosmetics, Isopure and Love Wellness, is the sole investor in the eight-figure series A round, LYS’s first institutional capital round. Encore typically backs brands generating between $10 million and $150 million in annual revenues.
Jamie Schwartz, director at Encore, believes LYS has the potential to follow in the footsteps of Tarte and Supergoop, which, respectively, was acquired by Kosé Corp. for $135 million in 2014 and sold a majority stake to private equity firm Blackstone for a reported valuation of $600 million to $700 million in 2021. Schwartz and Encore managing director and co-founder Robert Brown are joining LYS’s board.
The brand was advised by Michael Toure, founder of financial advisory Toure Capital, on the deal, an anomaly in the funding landscape, where only .4% of funding last year went to a startup with a Black founder or co-founder, according to data from financial resource Crunchbase. Thompson joins more than 350 Black and Latina female founders raising over $1 million in funding. In the beauty industry, they include Oui The People’s Karen Young, Topicals’ Olamide Olowe, Myavana’s Candace Mitchell Harris and The Lip Bar’s Melissa Butler.
In a statement, Schwartz says, “We are delighted to be partnering with Tisha as she grows this special brand. LYS’s product is truly innovative, its marketing strategies are on point, and the white space ahead is tremendous.”
For the series A round, Thompson strategically sought out a value-add financial partner that previously funded brands stocked at Sephora that scored successful exits. “I didn’t want to spend this precious time growing my business and teaching a partner about our beauty industry and what it takes,” she says. “I wanted somebody who already paved that path.”
LYS Beauty founder and CEO Tisha ThompsonEven before its series A round, LYS had been heading in that direction. In tandem with hitting the market, the brand bowed at Sephora in the retailer’s Next Big Thing assortment spotlighting emerging brands. The only clean cosmetics brand at Sephora with Black ownership, it’s expanding on April 8 to 800-plus Sephora at Kohl’s locations, bringing its total retail door count to over 1,600. At Sephora, Thompson says LYS’s ambition is to graduate to full gondolas.
Outside of Sephora in the United States, LYS is available at Sephora in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Credo and TikTok Shop, where it’s broken into the top 20 personal care brands. The brand’s TikTok popularity has catapulted its direct-to-consumer business, and its DTC sales were up roughly 200% year-over-year in 2024. LYS’s viral No Limits Cream Bronzer Stick has racked up over 1 billion TikTok views, and sales of the product at Sephora have doubled year-over-year. Overall, the brand achieved double-digit year-over-year growth in 2024. It will be expanding to the United Kingdom via TikTok Shop later this year.
“I really want to continue to be a disruptor in the industry and have a strong impact in the beauty space, so that comes with widened distribution,” says Thompson. “Not everyone lives near a freestanding Sephora, so this really gives us an opportunity to get into those rural markets where people are seeing us on TikTok and really excited about trying the brand, but just can’t get to us.”
“I really want to continue to be a disruptor in the industry.”
Thompson informed the publication Business of Fashion that she retains a majority stake in LYS. With over two decades of product development experience under her belt, the former makeup artist and VP of marketing and innovation at Pur Cosmetics says she invested a less than six-figure inheritance she received after her father passed away in 2019 coupled with an undisclosed sum from angel investors into launching LYS. LYS is an acronym for “Love Your Self.” It’s operated on a cash-positive basis through purchase orders and has doubled revenues annually since launching.
Thompson notes LYS is one of a few brands that gained early traction at Sephora without institutional investment. For example, brands carried by the retailer such as Dieux, Roz, Violette_FR, Kulfi and Tower 28 have secured investment from firms like Sandbridge Capital, True Beauty Ventures, Silas Capital, G9 Ventures and Prelude Growth.
“It’s been crucial for us to ensure that we do things in the right order to preserve cash and set up our business for long-term growth,” says Thompson. “My focus has always been on building a solid foundation that allows us to scale sustainably, while also being mindful of our financial health.” With the new investment, she adds, “It’s really about being strategic, being intentional, staying focused and then executing because performance matters.”
LYS Beauty is among the top 20 personal care brands on TikTok. Its viral No Limits Cream Bronzer Stick has racked up over 1 billion TikTok views.LYS has 16 products at Sephora, and its bestsellers are the $21 No Limits Cream Bronzer Stick, $25 Triple Fix Blurring and Hydrating Skin Tint Foundation Stick, and $21 Higher Standard Cream Glow Blush Stick. Sephora stocks its complexion and lip products, mascara, bronzer, blush and setting powder and spray, but the brand extends beyond them to skincare, makeup brushes and false lashes sold on its website. DTC allows the brand to tell its story directly to its community, referred to as the Confidence Crew.
LYS works with creators on an affiliate basis. Top influencers like Meredith Duxbury, Golloria George, Monet McMichael and Jackie Aina have organically mentioned its products. Its employees have become influencers themselves, and Thompson says employee-generated content (EGC) fuels outsized social media engagement. Last month, LYS treated 12 employees and four contractors to a vacation in Negril, Jamaica to express its appreciation for their service.
LYS’s team now stands at 21 people, and Thompson is interested in enlarging it in marketing, field sales and education. In particular, LYS is concentrating on experiential and in-person marketing and sampling moving forward. The brand is participating in Essence Festival, Beautycon and Sephoria this year. “Activations will allow us to meet the consumers directly and spend time with them and let them experience the product and meet the team,” says Thompson. “Everybody’s really starting to get invested in the team behind the brand.”