Social Money Ltd, owner of millennial buy now, pay later finance - Payl8r and bridge lending business - SoMo, has made its first ever investment in another business.
The Series A-B funding of £500,000 is with Faces Consent for a 10% share in its rapidly growing business. The start-up aesthetics app has been valued at £5 million.
Social Money announced on March 28 2022 that Payl8r was becoming a lending partner on Faces Consent app. This partnership is expected to bring £24 million in revenue to Payl8r. It was during these negotiations that Social Money recognised a wider potential within the business.
Louis Alexander, owner and director of Social Money Ltd, says: “Faces Consent is an impressive tech start-up within the rapid growingly aesthetics industry. I was impressed by its business model and growth potential. We can add real value through our expertise across finance, technology and retail, alongside our half a million pound investment.
“This is the first time that we’ve invested outside of our business. It’s not something we were actively seeking to do, but when an opportunity as strong as this comes along, you have to take it.”
Faces Consent was launched two and a half years ago by entrepreneurs Ben O’Brien and Ashley Simpson Davies as an app designed to house the consent forms for their own private aesthetic clinic. They soon realised that other practitioners were eager to use their technology, so they granted free access of all forms to help build a critical mass of users. Since then, Faces Consent has seen phenomenal growth with over 45,000 registered users and a valuation of £5 million.
Whilst the app itself is free, Faces Consent has a range of commercial partnerships which bring in revenue. It currently sees an average of £20,000 of pharmaceutical sales each day as practitioners purchase products such as toxins and fillers directly within the app. This figure is likely to increase and the Faces Consent team have plans to increase their product range.
Ben O’Brien, co-founder and MD of Faces Consent, comments: “We hit it off with the team at Social Money straight away. There is so much value they can add alongside their financial investment. Their expertise across finance and technology makes them a great partner to help us fulfil our ambitious growth plans.”