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Exit: Miss Sophie is acquired by WildeGroup

Photo: Sophie Kühn, foun­der of MISS SOPHIE
12. April 2023

Berlin — Miss Sophie sells to Wilde­Group. Miss Sophie has writ­ten an impres­sive success story in 8 years, estab­li­shing itself as a direct-to-consu­­mer pioneer in the beauty market. Sophie Kühn (photo, © Miss Sophie) foun­ded the company in Berlin in 2014, without inves­tors (“boot­strap­ped”) she scaled the company to an eight-figure turno­ver and counts almost one million custo­mers. Miss Sophie ranks first among the fastest growing online compa­nies in the beauty sector in Germany (Digi­tal 100 by similarweb).

During her semes­ter abroad in France, the busi­ness student came up with the idea for the nail foils. Since nail polish quickly peeled off her nails on the beach, she looked for an alter­na­tive — and found it. Sophie star­ted her busi­ness in her 1‑room apart­ment and packed the first orders there. In the early days of e‑commerce, the brand made a name for itself in the beauty world through nume­rous TV features. Influen­cer marke­ting paired with perfor­mance marke­ting allo­wed the company to grow sustainably.

The Miss Sophie product range consists of over 400 items: a variety of nail foils, access­ories for appli­ca­tion and removal, and care products. The beauty products are sold via the company’s own online store and via major beauty plat­forms such as Douglas, Flaconi, QVC, West­wing and Amazon. The nail foils are vegan and animal-free. The long shelf life of 14 days and easy appli­ca­tion make the nail foils so popu­lar with consumers.

Wilde­Group has been active in the cosme­tics indus­try for over 30 years, specia­li­zing in high-quality beauty products, services and trai­ning. Thanks to WildeGroup’s long expe­ri­ence in the nail sector through its LCN as well as ales­san­dro brands and its opera­tio­nal resour­ces, Miss Sophie will be able to expand in its current markets, enter new markets, further deve­lop its B2B busi­ness and work on expan­ding its product range.

By part­ne­ring with Wilde­Group, foun­der Sophie Kühn is taking on a pionee­ring role. Because while the number of female foun­ders in Germany will rise to 20.3% in 2022 (source: Statista), only 4% of all exits in Europe are “women-led”, i.e. have at least one female foun­ding member (source: Deal­room; refers to exits with company valua­tion >$20m).

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