Glossybox raises $72.4M for beauty product discovery

The Birchbox-style company delivers boxes of beauty samples throughout Europe and Asia

Everyone wants a box o’ stuff.  The subscription commerce model is thriving around the world, and today, Berlin-based Glossybox—the Birchbox-style beauty product e-commerce company—announced that it has raised €55 milion ($72.4 million).

Founded in March 2011, Glossybox parent company, Beauty Trend Holding, announced that it is currently receiving more than €55 milion in financing from Rocket Internet, Holtzbrinck Ventures, and Investment AB Kinnevik.  The company could not be reached for comment, but it vaguely indicated in its press release that the financing will be put towards Glossybox’s growth.

The beauty box company currently ships to 16 countries, including Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, as well as the United Kingdom and the United States.

Like its U.S.-based counterpart, Birchbox, the Glossybox platform allows users to sign up and create their own beauty profile.  The service then delivers five high-end product samples tailored specifically to the user’s needs for €15 a month, which includes shipping.  Users can also sign up for a three-month or six-month subscription package, which shaves a couple of euro off the total cost.

Brands that Glossybox works with include Kerastase, Dermalogica (my personal favorite), Calvin Klein, Elizabeth Arden, Giorgio Armani, KMS, L’Occitane, Lancome, L’Oreal, and more.  Glossybox offers boxes for beauty, men, teens, babies and pregnant women, and eco-friendly cosmetics.

The company is really capitalizing on the women’s magazine audience—and really, the platform seems to operate like a glossy magazine brought to life. Along with the five samples, each box also includes a magazine featuring makeup and beauty tips.

The company says it has 200,000 subscribers across all 16 countries to which it ships.  Birchbox, by comparison, has some 100,000 subscribers throughout the U.S.  In September, Birchbox made its first acquisition with French counterpart JolieBox, which also kicked off its international expansion and gave it a new footprint in France, the UK, and Spain.  Glossybox has gotten ahead of Birchbox by establishing a foothold in the rest of continental Europe and Asia.

With 300 employees and two million boxes shipped, Glossybox founder and CEO Charles von Abercron says that 2013 will be a year of growth for Glossybox:

“The delivery of the two-millionth Glossybox is a wonderful milestone to top off an already very successful year. We are also looking forward to a period of further dynamic growth in 2013. It can already be said that GLOSSYBOX has created a new standard, revolutionizing the ways in which people discover new beauty products, and beauty brands reach early-adopting target groups."