Octopus Ventures helps Skin & Me dial it down with £10 million cash infusion

Skin + Me, a UK-based teledermatology service that lets customers tend to skin disorders virtually, has raised £10 million of series B funds.

Octopus Ventures led the transaction after previously backing Skin +Me's series A round; its total investment has now reached £13 million.

Skin + Me is a D2C skincare company offering paid subscriptions to buy dermatological products associated with gold standards of care, using prescription-grade ingredients to treat skin disorders like acne, rosacea, and pigmentation.

Those same products also alleviate aesthetic concerns regarding visible pores, fine lines or skin texture.

The products are prescribed to patients following an online consultation with its professional dermatologists, designed to "replicate the in-clinic experience."

Patients then receive their skin regimen delivered to their mailbox on a monthly basis.

Skin + Me's provided figures show almost a quarter of the UK population seeks skin treatment each year. 

The company was able to scale at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has issued "millions" of prescription products since the platform launched two years ago.

Last year Skin + Me achieved 100% year/year operating growth, and the business is said to be cash generative. The series B funds will support its growth strategy while expanding its relationship with Octopus Ventures.

James Mishreki, co-founder of Skin + Me, also spearheaded the launch of London-based Life Supplies, a circular economy platform for recycling unused personal care products. He commented: "Our mission was to create a game-changing, personalised skincare brand to democratise dermatology.

"I've now moved on to my next D2C venture and I'm delighted the team are doing such a good job delivering that vision to hundreds of thousands of people."

Mishreki and fellow entrepreneur Philip Wilkinson have been credited as Skin + Me's original founders. While setting up the company they were joined by three colleagues as co-founders:  Horatio Cary (CEO), Mike Passey (CTO), and Rachel Jones.

Cary commented: "The global skincare industry is worth £140bn and more than 50% of consumers are dissatisfied because they want a product that works.

"Loyalty and customer love for our products followed because they deliver results. We’ve seen consumer awareness for prescription-only ingredients such as tretinoin grow exponentially. We expect the £140bn global skincare spend to shift quickly towards prescription-strength ingredients and Skin + Me is ideally placed as the market leader in the UK to take advantage of this trend.”