{"id":44678,"date":"2023-10-20T15:37:38","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/start-up-incubator-foundry-unveils-lusthaveit-com-au-as-first-investment-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:37:38","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:37:38","slug":"start-up-incubator-foundry-unveils-lusthaveit-com-au-as-first-investment-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/start-up-incubator-foundry-unveils-lusthaveit-com-au-as-first-investment-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Start-up incubator Foundry unveils Lusthaveit.com.au as first investment – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"

New start-up incubator Foundry has unveiled its first investment, taking an undisclosed minority stake in online beauty business Lusthaveit.com.au.<\/p>\n

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The deal represents the first start-up to be backed by Sydney-based Foundry \u2013 which is run by former executives of Microsoft, Fairfax and Network Ten \u2013 since it launched in November last year<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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Lusthaveit.com.au, which launched in July last year, was founded by Nicci Herrera, who has been working alongside two sales staff and the Foundry team in order to grow the business.<\/p>\n

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The start-up calls itself \u201cAustralia’s first beauty subscription commerce business.\u201d For a $14.95 rolling monthly subscription, or $165 a year, users are regularly sent hand-picked boxes of various cosmetic products.<\/p>\n

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Lusthaveit.com.au also has a standalone eCommerce arm. Alongside its investment in the business, Foundry has also purchased Glossybox, its leading competitor in Australia.<\/p>\n

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Dale McCarthy, founder of Foundry, tells StartupSmart<\/i> that she hopes Lusthaveit.com.au will have a similar impact in Australia that its US equivalent Birchbox has had Stateside.<\/p>\n

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In August last year, Birchbox raised $10.5 million in series A funding from a group of investors, including Accel Parkers.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe looked at a lot of businesses before we decided upon this one,\u201d she says. \u201cNicci doesn\u2019t have a lot of digital experience, but she has 15 years in the beauty industry and has great connections here. We bring the digital expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere are so many beauty products released that it\u2019s hard to keep up. Having a curated eCommerce model allows users to save time and have things that are seasonal and suit them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis is a new concept in Australia, so it will be a challenge to educate the market. But the benefit is that it is socially and virally driven. Women are heavily engaged so they will spread the word and build the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe have several thousand subscribers, but we are at the tip of the iceberg. We hope to grow subscriber numbers, launch into New Zealand and possibly Asia.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New start-up incubator Foundry has unveiled its first investment, taking an undisclosed minority stake in online beauty business Lusthaveit.com.au.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44678"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}