Recently, Unilever Ventures has invested an additional US$4 million in the Indonesian make-up vegan brand ESQA. This Series B funding round was disclosed in a filing with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), a financial regulator in Singapore.
Unilever’s venture capital arm initially took a stake in the Jakarta-based business in December 2022, investing $6 million in Series A funding. ESQA, founded in 2016 by Cindy Angelina and Kezia Trihatmanto, positions itself as Indonesia’s first vegan beauty brand. Angelina and Trihatmanto, who serve as CEO and Chief Product Officer respectively, moved to Indonesia after a decade of studies in Los Angeles to establish the brand.
ESQA’s products are accessible through the brand’s direct-to-consumer website and in retail stores like Sephora and Watsons across Indonesia. The brand has also extended its market reach to other Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam and Singapore.
The company’s true success, though, has come from social media, with about 765,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok combined. “We only started using TikTok in November [2022], explained Angelina. “In Q1 2023, our growth on TikTok has increased 6x.”
Since that interview a year ago, Esqa’s follower count on TikTok has jumped from 175,000 last year to 465,000, tapping into a Gen Z demographic that boasts the highest screen time in Asia-Pacific.T To double down on this growth, Esqa has opened a studio specifically for livestreams on TikTok, going live about six times a day, for up to three hours each time.
This new investment follows Unilever Ventures’ recent funding in July for the feminine intimate and body care brand Luna Daily. The additional capital will aid the British business in expanding its product range. Venture capital firms Redrice Ventures and Joyance Partners have also backed Luna Daily, which has raised a total of £4.7 million to date.
