The Vogue Business Funding Tracker

Introducing the Vogue Business Funding Tracker, a running list highlighting the most notable and intriguing investment and M&A activity in fashion and beauty. From emerging disruptors to legacy giants undergoing major changes, we spotlight the deals that are shifting the dynamics of the sectors we cover, including fashion, beauty, tech and sustainability.

Company description: Frasers Group has taken a 4.2% position in British luxury brand Burberry. Frasers, the company behind House of Fraser, Sports Direct and Flannels, is holding the position through put options, which gives Frasers Group the right to buy shares at a predetermined stock price. The company is also the second largest shareholder in Mulberry PLC.

Frasers Group has been on an investing spree of late, increasing its stake in Hugo Boss to 30.3% and offering a takeover proposal. Frasers Group also bought Matches for £52 million in December 2023, before it announced that it was going into administration; Matches was sold in December 2025 to form part of newly established luxury group Hulcan.

Investor(s): Frasers Group (portfolio includes: House of Fraser, Flannels, Sports Direct).

Company description: Solomei AI, the company behind the Callimacus platform, has announced that it has entered into an agreement for an investment from Salesforce. The investment will “support Callimacus’s efforts to expand its engineering and AI research capabilities, accelerate product development, and scale commercial operations across Europe and North America.” In January 2026, Callimacus, whose chairman is Brunello Cucinelli, was used to build the new e-commerce experience for the designer’s eponymous luxury brand.

Investor comments: “Brunello has always believed that technology should elevate humanity, and that conviction is at the heart of Callimacus,” said Marc Benioff, chair and CEO of Salesforce. “The team has developed an innovative platform that reimagines AI-powered experiences — bringing together conversational AI, enterprise context, and real-time personalization to create entirely new ways for businesses to engage with their customers.”

“Three years ago, Marc Benioff and I began an endeavor with mathematicians, philosophers, humanists, and technologists, from which Callimacus was born. Our idea was to create a simple, intuitive product capable of speaking the language of human beings; a sort of new web, without pages, categories, or predetermined paths, able to accompany the intent of each individual navigator. I look with great confidence and hope for the path that Callimacus will pursue with Salesforce’s investment,” Brunello Cucinelli, chairman of Solomei AI, added.

Company description: Founded in 2021, Merit is a US-based beauty brand designed as an antidote to using multiple, trend-led products — collapsing everyday cosmetics into a curated, minimal line-up. The investment is led by Vasiliki Petrou, managing partner at Semcap Beauty & Wellness, who also founded the Unilever Prestige division in 2014, spanning Dermalogica, Paula’s Choice, Hourglass, K18, and more.

Investor comments: “Merit is one of the most thoughtfully built brands in beauty, a true icon in the market. I love the timeless brand aesthetic, the simplified and edited approach to beauty, and the focus on the millennial and Gen X consumer, which is a significant white space in our industry. I am thrilled to support the continued global scaling of the brand,” Petrou said in a statement.

Company description: Frasers Group has increased its stake in Hugo Boss to approximately 30.28% (up from 26.06%), which demands an official takeover bid in line with German legislation. The move follows Frasers’s €2 billion (€38 per share) takeover proposal in June, which Hugo Boss believed was “financially inadequate”, urging its shareholders to reject. Frasers, now Hugo Boss’s largest shareholder, said its offer still stands through July 27.

Investor(s): Frasers Group (portfolio includes: House of Fraser, Flannels, Sports Direct).

Company description: Syntetica is a French startup that transforms textile waste into recycled nylon through a proprietary chemical method that allows the processing of fabrics containing multiple materials. The funding will help Syntetica build its first commercial facility in France, which will be able to transform hundreds of tons of post-consumer textile waste annually. While Syntetica already works with labels such as Victoria’s Secret and Etam, it also plans to scale its recycling efforts and partner with more fashion brands.

Funding and round: $30 million, Series A.

Investor(s): Ecotechnologies 2 (portfolio includes: Standing Ovation, Mantle8), Lululemon (portfolio includes: Epoch Biodesign, Samsara Eco, Zymochem), MAS Holdings (portfolio includes: Victoria’s Secret, Calvin Klein, Gap), Swen Capital Partners, EQT Ventures.

Company description: Founded in 2021 by Abhi Arora and Sanket Agarwal, Fleek is a wholesale vintage fashion marketplace. Fleek connects retailers and resellers with verified, secondhand clothing wholesalers worldwide, enabling them to source vintage inventory in bulk through a digital marketplace with integrated logistics and quality assurance.

Funding and round: $25 million, Series B.

Investor(s): Burda Principal Investments (portfolio includes: Vinted), Ebay Ventures, FJ Labs, H14, Andreessen Horowitz, HV Capital, Y Combinator, and more.

Company description: Whering is a digital wardrobe and styling app founded in 2020 by Bianca Rangecroft. The app enables users to catalogue the clothes they already own, create outfits, track wardrobe usage, and receive styling recommendations, with the aim of encouraging more intentional fashion consumption and reducing unnecessary purchases.

Investor(s): Ebay Ventures, Google AI Futures Fund.

Company description: Hair technology company Halo has developed its first product, HaloBraid. Launching in salons this fall, the device will be the first automated hair braiding tool that works alongside stylists to halve braiding time from as long as 10 hours per appointment. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s VC firm Seven Seven Six is leading the investment into a business that was launched off the back of Yinka Ogunbiyi’s winning Harvard Innovation Labs pitch last year.

Investor(s): Seven Seven Six (portfolio includes: Anthropic, ElevenLabs, Flock Safety), Bling Capital (portfolio includes: Palantir, Gusto, Everlane), AlleyCorp (portfolio includes: ShopMy, Gilt Groupe, Business Insider).

Investor comments: “As an investor, I look for founders that see something broken that everyone else has accepted as fixed. Braiding is a perfect example: it is a process that has not materially changed in thousands of years, despite being one of the most popular hairstyles for millions of Americans and a significant part of the $270 billion salon services industry,” said Ohanian. “Yinka has introduced a novel technology to a traditionally manual and highly specialized professional service.”

Company description: L’Oréal Group has taken a stake in Indian personal care company Innovist. (Vogue Business reported on speculations back in March.) The company has a successful portfolio that includes Indian haircare brand Bare Anatomy, skincare brands Chemist at Play and Sunscoop, and bodycare brand Vinci Botanicals. The company was founded in 2018 by Rohit Chawla, Sifat Khurana, and Vimal Bhola with a focus on science-first formulations, transparent ingredients, and in-house research and development.

Funding and round: Majority stake, terms undisclosed.

Investor(s): L’Oréal Group (portfolio includes: Cerave, La Roche-Posay, Vichy, Armani Beauty, SkinCeuticals).

Investor comments: “Our investment in this innovative Indian startup is a clear testament to our unwavering commitment to expanding L’Oréal’s footprint in India,” CEO Nicolas Hieronimus said. “By bringing together the very best of L’Oréal’s global expertise with Innovist’s high-performing, science-led products and deep-rooted understanding of the Indian consumer, I believe we are poised to shape the future of beauty in this dynamic market.”

Company description: Remedy is a dermatologist-developed skincare brand founded by Dr. Muneeb Shah in March 2024. The brand’s products target skin concerns such as dark spots, dryness, fine lines, dullness, keratosis pilaris, and sensitive skin. Remedy is stocked on Amazon, TikTok Shop and Target, the latter of which it partnered with in December 2025. The Series A investment will support the skincare brand with its next phase of growth, including advancing clinical research, expanding its product categories, and improving inventory. Remedy also plans to strengthen its formulation, testing, and consumer education.

Funding and round: Series A, terms undisclosed.

Investor(s): L Catterton (portfolio includes: Merit Beauty, Tula, Kopari, Elemis, Nutrafol, Intercos, Ex Nihilo).

Investor comments: “We seek to partner with exceptional founders building brands that will redefine categories, and we believe Remedy is uniquely modernizing dermatological skincare,” L Catterton partner Tehmina Haider said. “As both a clinician and a consumer educator, Dr. Shah has built a portfolio of simple, effective, and accessibly priced products that leverage advanced ingredient technologies to address real patient needs — and that is what will define the next generation of dermocosmetics. The brand’s rapid growth reflects deep consumer demand for affordable, clinically-grounded skincare, and we are thrilled to partner with the Remedy team on its next chapter.”