Phlur Finds Financial Father Figure In TSG Consumer As Fragrance Dealmaking Picks Up

July 23, 2025


Capitalizing on the fragrance category’s momentum and gen Z consumers’ scent obsession, The Center is selling Phlur to private equity firm TSG Consumer in a deal that will test the durability of the current fragrance cycle and the influencer brand model. 

Announced five months after General Atlantic acquired Kayali, another brand making a splash in the scent sector, the deal deepens TSG Consumer’s involvement in beauty following it obtaining a minority stake in Dude Wipes earlier this year and a majority stake in Summer Fridays a year ago. It also heightens the firm’s exposure to an influencer-aligned business following Huda Kattan, the influencer and founder, recently resuming full control over Huda Beauty after an eight-year partnership with TSG. Kayali’s relocation was part of Huda Beauty’s separation from TSG. 

Terms of TSG’s acquisition of Phlur weren’t disclosed. Ben Bennett, founder of incubator The Center, and Chriselle Lim, the influencer he paired with the brand as its creative director and co-founder, retain stakes in Phlur. Prelude Growth Partners, the investment firm that poured $15 million into The Center for a minority share in 2021, is exiting. 

The deal reinforces the strong scorecard of The Center, which sold Naturium to E.l.f. Beauty in 2023 for $355 million and took over Phlur from its husband-and-wife founders Eric and Cynthia Korman in 2021, reskinned it, spun stories with its fragrance releases (its bestseller Missing Person and Father Figure channeled Lim’s heartbreaking divorce) and guided it to success on TikTok and in Sephora, where Business of Fashion reports it’s in the top 10 fragrance brands and the second-highest grower in the category. The publication pegs its expected 2025 sales at $150 million. 

Priced from $20 to $139, Phlur is available on Amazon and at Nordstrom, Anthropologie, Brown Thomas, Selfridges and SpaceNK in addition to Sephora. Along with eau de parfums, it sells body mist, body wash, deodorant, lotion and candles. Data from Navigo Marketing shows Phlur as the No. 7-ranked brand on Sephora’s website, which the online growth agency estimates has seen a 37% traffic slump this year. Phlur’s share of fragrance sales on Sephora.com has increased from 2.1% last year to 5% this year. Kayali, Jo Malone, Sol de Janeiro, Ariana Grande and Glossier are the top fragrance brands on Sephora’s site not in the designer fragrance field.

On Amazon, Navigo figures Phlur generates $1.7 million in monthly sales, with over $1 million from body mists. The brand has an 8.9% share of the category on the e-commerce platform. According to e-commerce intelligence resource Charm.io, Phlur has racked up over $10 million in sales on TikTok Shop from July last year to June this year, averaging about $900,000 in sales per month. In direct-to-consumer distribution, Charm.io approximates its median price for 124 products at $36.

“The Phlur deal is a clear reflection of the boom the fragrance industry is experiencing.” 

Divya Gugnani, founder of 5 Sens, a fragrance brand at Sephora, and co-founder of makeup brand Wander Beauty, calls Phlur’s sale to TSG Consumer a “watershed moment for the fragrance industry.” She says, “We’re witnessing the emergence of an entirely new consumer category, fragrance buyers who discover scents through TikTok reviews and emotional storytelling rather than traditional duty-free or retail store experiences. Unlike legacy brands like Byredo that built their success through heavy retail strategy, Phlur proved that fragrances can scale massively through digital-first strategies and community-driven discovery. This acquisition validates that social-native fragrance brands aren’t just a trend, they’re the future of how consumers connect with scent.”

In a statement, Colin Welch, managing director and head of New York at TSG Consumer, says, “Today’s fragrance shopper is looking for more than scent—they’re seeking identity, emotion, and discovery. PHLUR’s rapid growth and devoted customer base reflect its remarkable ability to meet that demand. Together, we will work to drive continued loyalty with existing consumers and introduce new fragrance lovers to the brand.”

Rich Gersten, co-founder and managing partner at beauty and wellness brand investment firm True Beauty Ventures, commends Phlur’s product roadmap. He explains, “The brand launched with a focused hero strategy [around] Missing Person, which went viral for both its unconventional scent profile and emotional storytelling. From there, Phlur moved quickly to innovate across product formats—e.g. deodorants—and fragrance profiles, keeping pace with a consumer base that craves constant discovery and variety. This product strategy not only sustained buzz, but supported the growing trend of fragrance ‘wardrobing,’ offering elevated scents at an accessible price point across a variety of formats.”

With fragrance outpacing other categories in the beauty industry—it was the fastest-growing prestige category last year, when it registered a 12% jump in sales on a unit and dollar basis, according to market research firm Circana—practically every investor in the beauty universe has been exploring fragrance opportunities, and Phlur’s deal is hardly a revelation, although industry observers note the absence of a strategic acquirer points to open questions about its longevity given its influencer tie-in and reliance on contemporary fragrance trends. Forbes chronicled in June that the brand’s sales doubled in 2024 and 2025 so far.

“The Phlur deal is a clear reflection of the boom the fragrance industry is experiencing,” says Isaac Lekach, co-founder of boutique fragrance manufacturer and consultancy Flower Shop. “Private equity’s involvement isn’t surprising. Phlur’s success lies in its ability to capture consumers in the digital realm, something private equity firms increasingly understand and value. I imagine more deals will follow. After all, high tides tend to raise all ships.”

For TSG Consumer to eventually exit Phlur, Sandra Nait-Amer, managing director at financial services firm Rothschild & Co., highlights the brand will have to prove its resilience. “Given the number of emerging brands and in light of recent acquisition case studies that did not go so well, being able to demonstrate that the brand has staying power, independent of the category, has become critical to secure a strategic deal,” she says. “If things go to plan, the timeline to an exit might be as short as two to three years.” 

Gersten identifies Estée Lauder, Puig, L’Oréal and Interparfums as potential contenders for Phlur’s post-private equity existence. On top of those companies, he says, “Private equity brand aggregators, particularly those building modern beauty platforms, could look at Phlur as an important path to scale and exit via a future IPO.”

Peering at its road ahead, Tina Bou-Saba, an investor in beauty and wellness brands such as Arrae, Curie and Kinfield, identifies men’s products, international distribution and expansion into Ulta Beauty as possible growth drivers for Phlur. She envisions fragrance deal activity heating up. Other brands named by industry insiders as likely fragrance deal targets include DedCool, Dossier, Diptyque, Nest and Glasshouse Fragrances. 

“The category is so hot. However, it’s challenging because many of the exciting brands are still quite small. The category is so fragmented,” says Bou-Saba. “This makes it challenging to pick winners and hard for an acquirer to find a target of appropriate scale. This is particularly the case if we assume that many of these small brands are likely unprofitable. There is no real buyer for a small, unprofitable beauty brand regardless of growth or distribution, in my experience.”