P&G sinks £30m into online beauty brand

Procter & Gamble is ploughing $50m (&£31.5m) into the creation of a standalone beauty care Internet business in a deal with Silicon Valley venture capitalists Institutional Venture Partners (IVP).

The company, reflect.com, will sell a new range of personalised beauty products and services over the Net. There will be 50,000 possible product and packaging combinations.

The products will only be available online from the Website, which launches before Christmas.

P&G chief executive Durk Jager says the company wants to learn how to sell personalised products and services online in order to accelerate growth.

P&G vice-president of global marketing Denis Beausejour will run reflect.com through its early stages. P&G president of global beauty care and North America Alan Lafley will act as interim chief executive.

Lafley will sit on the company’s board, alongside P&G chief financial officer Clayton Daley, and IVP partners Tim Haley and Geoff Yang. They will appoint a chief executive and independent director to the board.

P&G holds the majority equity stake in the start-up with the balance held by IVP and reflect.com employees.

Reflect.com is based in San Francisco and aims to employ 60 to 100 people over the next 12 months.