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Why is Lubrizol pursuing indie brands?

21-Aug-2019 - Last updated on 28-Sep-2021 at 13:42 GMT

The global cosmetics and personal care ingredient supplier hired a chief accelerator director in 2017, invested in One Ocean Beauty in 2018, and this week the company is exhibiting at Uplink Live in New York City. At this year’s BeautyX Capital Summit, Cosmetics Design spoke with Brandon Ford, Lubrizol’s chief accelerator director, to learn more.

The BeautyX Capital Summit is a two-day educational forum, hosted by the Indie Beauty Media Group (IBMG) where current and future beauty brand founders learn about brand financing options, meet with investors, and network with other beauty entrepreneurs and indie allies. (Read more about this year’s event here on Cosmetics Design.)

Brandon Ford, Lubrizol’s chief accelerator director, spoke at this year’s Summit (which took place Monday and Tuesday in New York City) as part of a panel focused on venture capital. Robert Rosenberg of Prolong Ventures; Sonya Brown of Northwest Ventures; and Anu Duggal, founding partner of the Female Founders Fund spoke on the same panel (moderated by Christopher Napolitano of IBMG).

Ford has, for a year and a half now, headed up the company’s first Brand Accelerator Program, positioning the initiative for growth and planning Lubrizol’s strategic investment activities as they pertain to indie brands.

In the video interview above (filmed yesterday at the BeautyX Summit in New York City), Ford tells Cosmetics Design editor Deanna Utroske that Lubrizol is looking to perhaps invest in more cosmetics and personal care startups and that the company very much wants to “figure out how we can support the indie brand movement.”

As part of the accelerator program, say Ford, “we’re really leveraging a new group within Lubrizol: the Consumer Marketing & Insights group.” And there’s the company’s new in-vivo lab facility in Barcelona, Spain, that can benefit brands working with Lubrizol now too.

Today and tomorrow, Lubrizol is exhibiting as part of the inaugural Uplink Live event (which runs as a show-within-a-show at IBMG’s Indie Beauty Expo) in New York City. Learn more about Uplink Live here on Cosmetics Design and here on the IBMG site.

And watch the full video interview above to find out why Lubrizol is pursuing indie brands.

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Deanna Utroske, CosmeticsDesign.com Editor, covers beauty business news in the Americas region and publishes the weekly Indie Beauty Profile column, showcasing the inspiring work of entrepreneurs and innovative brands.