Private equity firm Encore Consumer Capital has completed the sale of its portfolio company, tarte Inc, to KOSÉ Corporation, a Tokyo-based global cosmetics business with a primary focus on Asia.
tarte is a natural cosmetics company based in New York.
Kevin Murphy, managing director of Encore Consumer Capital, says: “It has been a great privilege and a lot of fun for us at Encore to have partnered with Maureen Kelly, Scott McDonough and the rest of the amazing team at tarte since our investment in 2010. The company’s performance over that time has been nothing short of extraordinary, and we look forward with confidence to watching tarte continue to thrive with its new partner KOSÉ.”
“We’ve loved working with the incredible Encore team – over the past four years they’ve helped us expand our footprint and reach more tartelettes worldwide,” says Maureen Kelly, founder and CEO of tarte. “Our vision throughout has been to create cruelty-free beauty products that are ‘healthy treats for your skin,’ foster the highest level of customer service and give back to the community and the environment. We’re excited about joining the KOSÉ family, but we’ll miss our Encore family, and wish them the very best in the future.”
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck acted as legal counsel to tarte in this transaction. KOSÉ was represented by Ohanna & Co.
