Irish skincare brand looks Stateside as it prepares for intial funding round

FINCA Skin Organics, a brand of plant-based skincare cream targeted at the long-term skin condition rosacea, is looking to raise around €500,000 as it focuses on expansion in the lucrative US market.

Finola Fegan founded the company as a response to her decades-long battle with the skin condition, which results in redness, pimples, swelling, and small and superficial dilated blood vessels around the face. It is seeking to raise €250,000 from private investors, with match funding from Enterprise Ireland.

Speaking with the Sunday Independent, Fegan said the funding round would help the company establish itself in the US market, which could help it hit €1m in revenue next year.

“Because of lockdown, we had to stop selling [into the US],” she said. “We are going to relaunch the US website in October.

“At the minute, all our market is in the UK and Ireland. When you go on to the forums [in the US], people know about this cream.”

During Covid-19, Fegan said that the direct to customer model resulted in sales doubling. In February, the company had sales of around

€15,000 a month, with this hitting €30,000 by May.

Through market research, Fegan has estimated that the US expansion could be “very lucrative”.

According to Fegan, the market for all rosacea treatments in the US is worth just over $2bn (€1.7bn), with the online alternatives market worth around $600m.

“The US market is a huge opportunity,” Fegan said. “You might say, ‘ah the American market, where do you even begin?’.

“We know exactly where to target the cream, and the US market is going to make a huge difference.

“We are only doing Google ads here in the UK and Ireland. We haven’t done anything in the US.

“Once the US market opens up for us, I’m talking about €1m the first year, €4m the next year and €9m for the following year – and that’s only a small proportion of that market.

“That’s the thing that excites me about the business; just how big it could be,” she added.

Fegan also hopes the funding round will help the company build out its online marketing team.

Finca is holding an investors’ evening at the Ballymascanlon House Hotel, Dundalk, Co Louth. The meeting will take place on Friday, September 11.