Natural personal care maker Yes To gets $8 million cash infusion
The millions are available to Yes To in the form of an asset-based line of credit from Avidbank Specialty Finance. San Francisco Equity Partners, a firm that works with expansion-stage companies and several natural brands is invested in Yes To and helped facilitate the funding deal.
“Yes To has reemerged as an innovative leader in the fast-growing natural beauty space,” David Mannix, partner at San Francisco Equity Partners, says in a press release about the credit line. “We chose Avidbank as a lending partner for Yes To because we knew they would move quickly and would be able to scale with the company.”
Funding
The Yes To product portfolio spans skin care, body care, hair care, lip care, and baby care. Nearly all of the products have a hero ingredient derived from a fruit or vegetable. There are lines defined by tomatoes, carrots, coconuts, blueberries, cucumbers, and grapefruit.
Staying in the natural, plant-based realm, the brand also has a line of skin care featuring cotton-based ingredients and another line centered around primrose oil.
Avidbank opted to work with this upbeat, natural skin care brand less out of any commitment to these sorts of products but more because of the bank’s past dealings with San Francisco Equity Partners.
“The credit facility provided to Yes To reflects our continued commitment to build market share in the asset-based lending arena,” says Larry LaCroix, executive vice president and division manager of Avidbank Specialty Finance, in the release. “Moreover, our ongoing relationship with San Francisco Equity Partners has benefited a number of new portfolio companies, as well as broadened Avidbank’s reach into new markets,” explains LaCroix.
Leadership
This new line of credit isn’t the first step of Yes To’s accelerated growth strategy. In mid-2015, Ingrid Jackel came aboard as CEO. She joined Yes To, having just led one of the industry’s fastest growing mass market cosmetic businesses and no doubt has plans to similarly advance Yes To’s business.
At the time, Jackel called Yes To “a natural, on-trend, relevant yet irreverent platform that will be the ideal stage for first-to-market concepts and best in class innovation,” adding that “I am extremely excited to share my passion for innovation and 20 years of experience with the entire Yes To team.”
