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The First-Ever Summit Laser-Focused On Beauty Dealmaking
Beauty Independent’s Dealmaker Summit is widely recognized as the premier sector-specific professional event for leaders involved in fund raising, capital strategy and M&A in beauty and wellness.
Renowned for its best-in-class content, the Dealmaker Summit features an expertly crafted agenda focused on topics relevant to beauty and wellness dealmakers, carefully curated panels that provide relevant yet diverse perspectives, and original research and insights presented by Beauty Independent’s Editorial team.
Join a diverse group of the most influential dealmakers active in the space, including strategics, private equity, venture capital, family offices, angel investors, incubators, investment bankers, as well as founders and CEOs of high growth brands for two-days of peer-level thought leadership and networking.
Dealmaker remains one of my must-attend conferences each year.
The quality of content, well curated panels and panelists, combined with the senior-level engagement across the beauty and personal care ecosystem, makes it an essential gathering for anyone actively driving deals in the space.
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—DIANA MELENCIO
General Partner, Brand Capital Fund
Summit
Agenda
I.INVESTMENT STRATEGY
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High-profile exits like Rhode and Medik8 proved that the right brand still commands a premium, but the broader M&A market remains bifurcated. Significant pent-up demand from stalled 2025 processes, combined with improving balance sheets and renewed strategic urgency, points to increased deal volume in 2026 to come. Public strategic buyers, who historically averaged 24 acquisitions annually, represented just 16% of deal volume in 2025, and the pressure to close that gap is real. The brands that clear the bar will be those with genuine defensibility, not just a great story. This session unpacks the latest deal data, maps where buyer conviction is concentrating, and gets honest about what it will actually take to transact this year.
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The megamerger still makes headlines, but the deals defining this era are smaller, scrappier, and far more interesting. From Rhode to Touchland to Not Your Mother's, a new generation of founder-built brands has reshaped what acquirers are willing to pay for and why. This session brings together dealmakers who have lived through multiple deal cycles for an unscripted conversation about what changed, what it means, and what comes next.
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Focus or diversify. Build or buy. Move fast or build infrastructure first. The neo-strategics assembling beauty's next generation of platforms are making consequential choices with limited margin for error. This session gets into the operational and strategic reality of building a beauty platform from scratch, what it takes to survive the dangerous middle ground between indie and conglomerate, and what the path to the top actually looks like.
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Category fit. Founder continuity. A deal structure built around shared upside. The Olive & June acquisition by Helen of Troy ticked every box — and the results have proven it. Acquired for $240 million and immediately accretive across every key financial metric, it is one of the most thoughtfully constructed deals in recent beauty history. In the first edition of Doing the Deal, founder Sarah Gibson Tuttle and Helen of Troy CEO Scott Uzzell go behind the scenes to share what made this transaction work — and what every founder and acquirer in the room can learn from it.
II.RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
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Retail is being redrawn. Partnerships are ending, assortments are reshuffling, and the rules for earning — and keeping — shelf space have fundamentally changed. For brands and investors alike, where you sit and who you sit with has never mattered more. This session puts beauty retail's most influential voices in one room for an honest conversation about what it takes to win in 2026, and what it costs when you don't.
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The practitioner recommendation has become one of the last forms of consumer trust that genuinely converts. The U.S. medical aesthetics market is projected to nearly double to $17.45 billion by 2031, and the brands building through professional channels are arriving at the acquisition conversation with something most cannot demonstrate: loyalty that was earned, not bought. This session examines what it truly means to be clinic-first — and whether credibility is a moat or a ceiling.
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Estée Lauder's collapse — shedding over $100 billion in market value from its 2022 peak — is the industry's most expensive lesson in geographic concentration risk. But writing off Asia entirely would be the next mistake. China is digitally complex and intensely competitive. Korea has become beauty's global innovation engine. Japan is mature but economically constrained. Southeast Asia is emerging as the industry's next growth frontier: fragmented, fast-moving, and operationally demanding. The door isn't closed, but the playbook has been restructured. This session asks what a credible beauty strategy looks like today, and which brands are proving it can still be done.
III.PRODUCT CATEGORIES
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Fragrance remains one of beauty's most coveted investment categories, but the easy money has been made. The mid-market is softening as the category bifurcates, and with the biggest strategic moves already locked up, the next wave of deals will demand sharper conviction. This panel examines what separates the houses built to last from the brands riding a trend — and what buyers, founders, and investors need to get right to win in a market that is simultaneously booming and becoming more brutally selective.
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The skincare market has become smarter, more fragmented and far more demanding. Consumers are increasingly splitting between clinically driven, professional-grade solutions on one end and value-oriented, ingredient-focused brands on the other—forcing retail skincare brands to work harder to justify their positioning, pricing and relevance. As a result, acquirers are becoming more selective, prioritizing assets with clearly defensible market positions, clinical credibility, strong consumer resonance and strategic fit. In a market where there is no longer “one skincare category,” what types of brands are truly positioned to win—and trade?
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Once dominated by mass players, haircare is now one of prestige beauty’s fastest-growing segments. But with new entrants crowding shelves and the pro salon channel still tough to crack, the category faces fresh challenges. This session separates the science-led category builders from the trend-chasers — and examines what it will actually take to sustain haircare's premium positioning through the next deal cycle.
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Makeup was the largest prestige beauty category in 2025, growing 4% — a recovery that has the industry feeling cautiously optimistic after two difficult years. But a pipeline of high-profile assets has been circling the market without crossing the finish line, and the acquisition checklist has changed. Buyers want defensible formulas, community, and omnichannel proof. This session asks whether 2026 is makeup's breakout year, which brands are best positioned to exit, and what it will really take to get the deals done.
IV.MARKET OPPORTUNITIES
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The global wellness economy is bursting, spanning ingestibles, biohacking, sexual wellness, women's health, and fitness tech. Early-stage capital is flowing fast, but strategics are already working through a queue of more established deals. This session explores what defines wellness today, who is funding the next generation, and whether this wave of debutants is building for an acquirer that isn't ready yet.
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Nail care has been overlooked, underfunded, and dominated by legacy brands for decades. That window is closing. The global nail care market is projected to grow from $27 billion in 2026 to $40 billion by 2034. The consumer has shifted toward treating nails like skin — with care, ingredients, and ritual. This session asks whether nail is beauty's most overlooked category and who is best positioned to build its next great brand.
the greatest minds
of our generation
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Robert Acheson
CEO, DAZZLE DRY
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Jeff Bedard
FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, REVANCE
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Lauren Bosworth Natale
FOUNDER & CEO, LOVE WELLNESS
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Reuben Carranza
EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, BANSK BEAUTY
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Oliver Chen
MANAGING DIRECTOR RETAIL, LUXURY, NEW PLATFORMS SECTOR HEAD, TD COWEN
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Mitchell Collens
PARTNER, ALIX PARTNERS
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Dr. Joël Coret
FOUNDER, CORÉT
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Simone Dominici
CEO, KIKO MILANO
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Umberto Doni
CO-FOUNDER & CEO, GIARDINI DI TOSCANA
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Ariel Fantasia
HEAD OF BEAUTY, PRINTEMPS
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Marco Ficarelli
INDUSTRY EXPERT
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Fabio Franchina
PRESIDENT, FRAMESI
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Rich Gersten
CO-FOUNDER & MANAGING PARTNER, TRUE BEAUTY VENTURES
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Sarah Gibson-Tuttle
FOUNDER & CEO, OLIVE & JUNE
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Ali Goldstein
PRESIDENT, MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS, L’ORÉAL USA
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Kevin Gould
CO-FOUNDER & CEO, GLAMNETIC & INH HAIR
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Jill Granoff
SENIOR ADVISOR, EURAZEO
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Cassandra Grey
FOUNDER, VIOLET GREY / MADAME GREY
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Lisa Guerrera
CO-FOUNDER, EXPERIMENT BEAUTY
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Sherif Guirgis
CHAIRMAN & CEO, VGD HOLDCO, LLC
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Alison Hahn
FORMER SVP, MAKEUP & FRAGRANCE, SEPHORA
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Tehmina Haider
PARTNER, L CATTERTON
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Jim Hartman
FOUNDER & CEO, OURSELF
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Larissa Jensen
SVP GLOBAL BEAUTY, INDUSTRY ADVISOR, CIRCANA
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Dr. James Kilgour
FOUNDER & CEO, KILGOURMD
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Kevin Kim
DIRECTOR, INVESTMENT BANKING, RAYMOND JAMES
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Dr. Adam Knight
CO-FOUNDER, YASO
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Alisa Lask
CEO, RION AESTHETICS
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Kelly McPhilliamy
MANAGING DIRECTOR, HEAD OF HEALTH & BEAUTY, CITIGROUP
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Diana Melencio
GENERAL PARTNER, BRAND CAPITAL FUND
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Evan Mintz
PRINCIPAL, HUMBLE GROWTH
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NADER NAEYMI-RAD
FOUNDER & PUBLISHER, BEAUTY INDEPENDENT
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Nathan Puksta
FOUNDER & CEO, FILAMENT SCIENCES
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ANDREW ROSS
FOUNDER & PRESIDENT, DESSWOOD ADVISORS
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AMANDA Schutzbank
CO-FOUNDER & GENERAL PARTNER, WILLOW GROWTH PARTNERS
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Ilya Seglin
MANAGING DIRECTOR, INVESTMENT BANKING, CASCADIA CAPITAL
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Jeremy Soine
CEO, FACE REALITY
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Andrew Stanleick
INDUSTRY EXPERT
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Jon Tenan
MANAGING DIRECTOR, GLOBAL CONSUMER & INVESTMENT BANKING, BAIRD
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Scott Uzzell
CEO, HELEN OF TROY
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Colin Welch
MANAGING DIRECTOR & PARTNER, TSG CONSUMER
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Shaun Westfall
MANAGING DIRECTOR, NORTH POINT
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Naomi Whittel
FOUNDER & CEO, OMI WELLBEAUTY
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Zack Zavalydriga
BOARD ADVISOR
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Nini Zhang
MANAGING DIRECTOR, INVESTMENT BANKING, BANK OF AMERICA
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Mandy Zhou
MANAGING DIRECTOR, BEAUTY, HEALTH & WELLNESS, BARCLAYS INVESTMENT BANK
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
Dealmaker SUMMIT LONDON
NOVEMBER 9-10
CONVENE LONDON
22 Bishopsgate, City of London, London
Focusing on the European market? Join us in London, November 9-10 for two days of real-world actionable insights through the lens of the unique characteristics of the European market combined with impactful networking.
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The Third Way: A New Era Of Beauty Dealmaking Emerges
CONVENE
One Liberty Plaza
2nd Floor
New York, NY
10006