SanomaVentures invests in Truly Yours

Discover and try service for beauty products

Amsterdam, 3 December 2012 – SanomaVentures is to invest in Truly Yours. Inspired by the successful American company Birchbox, Truly Yours is a Dutch initiative selling subscriptions for luxury boxes containing samples of cosmetic products.

In January 2012, Marte Kau, former editor of the glossy magazine Red, launched Truly Yours as a ‘discover and try’ service for sophisticated beauty junkies. Each month, subscribers to Truly Yours receive a stylish box containing five small size packages of high-end beauty brands, special niche brands or new products freshly discovered by the Truly Yours team. Over the last few months, a substantial number of people have become Truly Yours subscribers and it already has more than 6,000 Facebook fans. The box containing the luxury samples is highly valued. Each time a new box appears, the products cause a furore on blogs and are discussed extensively through various social media channels. The ‘un-boxing videos’ on YouTube have become a popular phenomenon.
From the perspective of the participating cosmetic brands, the Truly Yours box is an entirely new way of introducing the target group to their brands and/or new products, as well as enabling new customers to be reached. Truly Yours actively encourages its subscribers to put reviews of the products on www.trulyyours.nl. In addition, Truly Yours carries out supplementary market research to assess reactions to the products; invaluable information for manufacturers.

Marte Kau: ‘When it comes to reaching women, Sanoma is a market leader, and this applies to the area of beauty products as well. It is, moreover, a party with considerable knowledge and contacts in the cosmetics industry and consequently, as an investor, Sanoma offers us particularly high added value.’

Herman Kienhuis: ‘Through its successful start, the Truly Yours team has shown that even with limited resources it can achieve great things. The Truly Yours activities perfectly complement those of Sanoma and we are, therefore, well placed to help them expand their position.”


About Truly Yours
Truly Yours is a box containing luxury samples of beauty products for you to try out in the privacy of your own home; the products range from high-end brands and special niche brands to cult classics. Each month, the Truly Yours team handpicks these products and has them delivered to your home address in a slick package. It is the coolest beauty gift you can give yourself!
www.trulyyours.nl | |

About SanomaVentures
SanomaVentures is an international initiative of the European media company Sanoma; its aim is to support innovative start-ups in areas of digital information, entertainment and education by providing access to capital, media exposure, expertise and its business network. SanomaVentures focuses on early stage investments in start-ups with a working product and a growing customer base in online consumer services, e-commerce, mobile & tablets, video & TV, online advertising or e-learning. SanomaVentures has offices in Amsterdam and Helsinki. The office in Amsterdam, was established in 2012 and focuses on the Dutch start-up scene. Companies in which SanomaVentures has invested include Vault79.com, Scoupy and Peerby.
sanomaventures.com |