Beiersdorf Invests in Start-Up for Personalized Skin Care

• Another significant step in trend segment of personalization through venture capital investment
• Innovative approach: Routinely brand composes daily personalized skin care routine via app in real time
• Digital first: sales purely via D2C

Hamburg, May 19, 2021 – Beiersdorf is further stepping up its commitment to digital, personalized skin care. Through its OSCAR&PAUL Beiersdorf Venture Capital Unit, the skin care company is investing in a start-up together with Belgian co-investor 9.5 Ventures. Its new personalized skin care brand Routinely will be launched today. Routinely focuses on a modular skin care ritual emphasizing the dynamic nature of the skin. An initial online questionnaire and a complementary app help consumers match the perfect combination of a total of 13 unisex serums for their skin. Through the consumer’s self-assessment supplemented by an advanced algorithm, the daily skin care routine is individually adjusted based on current measurement results in real time via app. Apart from the consumers’ current skin care requirements, external factors such as humidity, temperature, air quality, or solar radiation are also taken into account.

“We must reconsider the traditional, static way of thinking when it comes to skin care,” says Charlotte Van Loock, cofounder and CMO at Routinely. “Our skin is a living, breathing organ that is influenced by a myriad of factors, such as eating habits, day-to-day environment, sleep patterns, hormonal balance, and many more. Generic products fail to cater to this individual specificity of our skin. Our goal is to create more clarity in the skin care segment. We want to offer consumers exactly and exclusively what they need to improve their skin health. Active ingredients that are proven to work while providing smart, convenient care.”

Ascan Voswinckel, Head of OSCAR&PAUL Beiersdorf Venture Capital, sees the new investment as a further important step toward implementing the company’s C.A.R.E.+ strategy and the successful promotion of innovative business models. “We know from comprehensive feedback and studies how relevant personalized skin care is to the consumer. We strongly believe in the pioneering concept of Routinely brought about by the team with an exceptional deal of dedication and spirit. As an investor and strategic partner, we collaborate closely with the team and share our expertise to bring Routinely to market quickly and evolve it successfully.”

The Routinely investment is part of a wide range of personalization activities at Beiersdorf under its C.A.R.E.+ strategy. It illustrates that the company is driving the personalization of skin care at very different levels. This includes, for example, the AI-based web app NIVEA SKiN GUiDE, which uses selfies to analyze individual skin needs and to provide personal product and care recommendations, as well as the company’s first personalized face care brand O.W.N. The products of the Routinely brand will be sold exclusively in D2C distribution via www.routinely.com. “Our investment in Routinely also reflects the potential we see in serving the increased online consumer demand – a trend that has been further reinforced by the coronavirus pandemic,” explains Ascan Voswinckel. The launch will initially be in Belgium and the Netherlands, with other European countries to follow.

9.5 Ventures is a Belgian, independent venture capital fund committed to corporate venturing. Closely collaborating with leading companies, it supports innovative entrepreneurs with ambitious plans to fundamentally reshape industries. 9.5 Ventures is entrepreneurial at heart and commits its capital and wide expertise to the creation of new large companies. 9.5 Ventures always invests in close partnership with world leading corporates.