Backstage in Body Care: Our investment in AKT London
Felix Capital leads AKT London’s $7m Series A round to accelerate expansion into beauty and personal care, including the U.S.
At Felix, we are on a mission to back brands and platforms that shape our culture, help us live better lives and have the potential to become category-defining companies. This mission has been informed by our thematic lens — we are passionate about understanding the way people live and how consumer preferences, behaviour and lifestyles are evolving. This has led us to investing in companies from Mejuri (modern jewellery brand empowering women to buy for themselves) to Moonbug (kids entertainment platform including channels such as Cocomelon and Blippi) to YFood (better-for-you functional food), Manual (modern health platform), Unmind and Peppy (providing better wellbeing and benefits at work) and many more.
In the past decade, we have witnessed a few notable trends accelerating during and post-COVID: 1) The growing demand for sustainable and clean products as consumers increasingly care more about what they put on their skin and in their bodies, and how this impacts the planet; 2) The boom of fragrance-led brands, whether its niche fragrance (which has grown at over 14% annually since 2017!) or more scent-led body products (such as Sol de Janeiro), as consumers look for products that enhance individuality and bring a sensorial experience; 3) An increasingly more educated and discerning consumer that cares more about product efficacy and ingredient quality, and the growing “skinfication” of hair and body care. We have also watched the beauty and personal care market evolve digitally, as consumers have increasingly taken to social channels to discover, buy, and share knowledge about both their routines and products. A quick glance at TikTok makes this clear — #hairtok has over 23 billion views and fragrance related content has another 7 billion plus!
As we have become more immersed in the beauty space and have had the privilege to meet multiple brands and founders, we were lucky to find one we wanted to partner with on our doorstep in the UK — AKT London. In AKT, we are excited by the unique combination of a distinct brand and story, early but very strong signs of customer love, and exceptional products. AKT captures many of the trends we have been witnessing in the market, and impressively growing to a $10 million revenue run-rate starting with only one much-loved deodorant product!
From Stage to Kitchen
AKT’s story starts in early 2020 — while London’s West End was cooling down, Ed Currie and Andy Coxon’s stove top was heating up. Flatmates and castmates at the time in Beautiful — The Carole King Musical, Andy and Ed had spent years plagued by a gruelling theatre schedule, sweating profusely under intense theatre lighting in heavy, difficult-to-clean costumes. With no deodorant options on the market that were both effective and natural, they took matters into their own hands, creating their own formula in their apartment kitchen using botanical and mineral ingredients. Over hundreds of iterations later, they hit on one that was both clean and highly effective.
Stepping into their First “Akt”
When COVID brought their performance schedule to a halt, Ed and Andy turned their attention to their passion project. They partnered with a professional manufacturer and launched a Kickstarter campaign — hitting their £15k target within an hour of going live. The team gained conviction to create a “personal performance company” through high-efficacy, all-natural, and sustainable gender-free body care products. The company would be called AKT, a nod to their careers in the West End, and endeavour to create body care products that were “born to perform.”
The Rise of AKT
Shortly after launching in 2020, AKT was deemed Vogue UK’s #1 deodorant, and declared as “one of the best deodorants of all time” by GQ. The brand has since gone on to win dozens of awards, capture the hearts of consumers both on and off stage, and experience remarkable growth (growing 3x+ year-on-year) in both the UK and US.
Impressively, this growth has been fuelled by just one single product thus far — the deodorant balm — coming in six scent profiles or “Scenes”. Fragrance is a significant part of the product experience, as Ed and Andy have created much-loved scents including Sc. 01 Orange Grove (a blend of petitgrain, mandarin, and neroli) and Sc. 02 After Thunder (a blend of cedar, eucalyptus, and orange). The team has an exciting line-up of new products coming (in similar scent families) starting with a microbiome-protecting Body Wash Concentrate and a firming and toning Body Balm which launched in August. AKT is also planning their expansion into retail starting with Barneys New York, Bloomingdales and Credo Beauty.
From our shared home in London’s West End, AKT caught our eye at Felix early on. In addition to the brand’s impressive early traction, we have been blown away by AKT’s strong customer love evident both through best-in-class monthly subscription and repeat revenue, as well as qualitatively through the brand’s social media and UGC. One TikTok video alone garnered over 1m views which featured a Manchester mum, “@mamafoxup”, raving about her love for the product. In addition, reviews on their own website, Trustpilot, and Amazon feature users raving about the scents, effectiveness, natural formulation, versatility and longevity of the products with headlines such as “here’s why I’ll never use anything else.”
A High Performance Team
AKT’s dynamic duo, Andy and Ed, are crafting a brand that’s as authentic as their West End roots. Ed, a self-trained nose, leads product development while Andy oversees brand and marketing. The pair are now joined by former e-commerce agency founder and angel investor Darryl Adie as CEO. Ed and Andy know intimately that life is a performance, with no rehearsals– whether you’re in theatre, a Team GB rower at the Paris Olympics, or simply navigating a busy day at the office. Their journey from “AKTors” to founding AKT is all about empowering individuals in their everyday lives with exceptional products that are “born to perform.”
At Felix, we’re on a mission to support passionate entrepreneurs who are shaping the iconic brands of tomorrow and moving the world forward. Our investment will fuel AKT’s expansion in the UK and US markets through existing direct channels while fostering new retail partnerships. Additionally, it will accelerate the further development of the product range and pave the way for launches in new territories. We’re thrilled to join the AKT team in their quest to elevate sustainable, high-performance products to a global audience, making the world not just better, but better smelling too!