Seen Group, the beauty-focused public relations and communications agency, has landed investment from private equity firm Rockpool Investments. 

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, apart from the fact that as part of the investment, entrepreneur Nancy Cruickshank joined Seen as chair.

The business, headquartered in London and formerly part of The Casbah Group, counts Unilever, L’Oréal, Estée Lauder, Coty, Shiseido, and LVMH on its roster as well as brands like Byoma, Fenty Beauty, Milk Makeup, Monday Haircare, and Biodance. It also continues to represent the British Beauty Council.

Guy Nieuwenhuys, investment director at Rockpool Investments, said: “We are delighted to partner with Jane and the Seen Group team at such an exciting inflection point for the business. Seen Group is strongly placed to scale its technology, broaden its international footprint, and accelerate growth, while continuing to set the standard for innovation in beauty.” 

The investment follows a period of significant momentum for the business, including double-digit organic growth over the past three years. A key driver of this performance has been Seen Group’s Community X Seen division, home to the CXS platform, representing 4 percent of total revenue in 2022 versus 29 percent by the end of 2025. 

The platform connects nano creators with beauty brands and currently has more than 40,000 creators categorized by beauty preferences and cultural interests.

Jane Walsh, CEO of Seen Group, said: “[The investment] came at a real inflection point for the business. We’ve had three years of double-digit growth, and that has allowed us to not only test new products and services that are really resonating with our clients, but it’s also recognized where we are able to serve clients in a much more integrated ecosystem that perhaps we haven’t been able to do before. Having a PE house invest, there is a playbook which really supports, if you take it on in the right way, mass scale and opportunity, especially within something like CXS.”

Over the past several years, Seen Group has also expanded into the U.S. and there’s now an equal split in revenue between the two countries.

“I feel very proud of the fact that the business is seven years old in the U.S., and actually it’s about 50/50 in terms of our revenue. That’s not always the case. It sometimes takes a lot longer, and it definitely took us a second to crack, but then we did so,” said Walsh, although she still believes there is a lot of white space in the U.S., as well as in other geographies. “We’ve not even touched the sides of the U.S. so there’s a massive opportunity, just given the scale of the market.”

Cruickshank, former chief digital officer at Carlsberg and a serial entrepreneur, is bullish on the beauty sector. “I am big on beauty, even though, if you look at the macro, consumer deals, including beauty, are having a bit of a tougher moment, but I truly believe that that will come back. And it’s exciting to be in marketing services at this moment in time. I’m part of this team that’s helping to crack the code of some of that.

“Seen Group has a range of magnetic attributes: deep category expertise, an exciting growth trajectory, hyper-relevant tech-enabled services to many of the world’s leading beauty brands, and a deeply passionate and talented team,” she continued.