EXCLUSIVE: American Exchange Group Acquires ‘Clean’ Skin Care Brand Indie Lee
Indie Lee’s eponymous, 2010-founded skin care brand has been snapped up by American Exchange Group as the parent company further stakes its claim in beauty.
Sold at Ulta Beauty, Blue Mercury, Credo Beauty and Nordstrom, the “clean” skin care line bills its products as “grounded in nature; supported through science,” with prices ranging from $16 for a salicylic acid-infused Banish Stick to $135 for its Stem Cell Serum.
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“With the addition of Indie Lee to our portfolio, we can invest the capital necessary to amplify [Lee’s] message, acquire new consumers and expand the brand, we believe, quickly,” said Josh Kirson, senior vice president of new business development at AEG, adding that “new product development is going to be a huge focus of this business.”
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The acquisition of Indie Lee marks the second in beauty by AEG — which also owns Aerosoles, Dane Craft and Island Surf Company — following its purchase last year of 2009-founded HatchCollective (now AX Beauty Brands), whose brands included NatureWell, Orlando Pita Play, Txtur and Paint & Petals.
Ramping up product development for those brands — in some cases “condensing timelines for trend-driven product to four to six months, versus waiting 12 to 18 months” said Kirson — has been key in growing those businesses.
Increasing Indie Lee’s launch cadence from its current one new launch a year — which in 2024 was a CoQ-10 Cleanser that also featured papaya and cucumber extract — to two a year, is one aim of the partnership.
“We can recapitalize this business, pay for clinical testing, source the correct ingredients under a condensed timeline, and be able to fill a specific white space,” Kirson said.
“What I love about this relationship is that [AEG] isn’t trying to change my brand; we’re just looking to amplify where we can go from here,” said Lee, adding that, in terms of launching new product, “this year has been challenging…[AEG] sought me out at a time when we were looking to see, ‘OK — how do we move forward with the business?'”
Lee founded the brand in 2010 after undergoing a brain tumor operation, which prompted her to rethink the safety of the ingredients she was applying to her face and body and their effect on the environment. One of the earliest “clean” beauty brands, Indie Lee “speaks to a psychographic — not a demographic,” the founder said. “We emphasize not just the goop inside the bottle, but also its greater impact on the ecosphere.”
The ethos has attracted a range of Gen Z, Millennial and Gen X consumers — an important draw for AEG to the brand. “We were pleasantly surprised about the diversification of Indie’s consumer, to whom she has sold millions of products over the last eight to 10 years,” Kirson said.
This summer, Lee had a second brain tumor removed. Through her health struggles, the founder has doubled down on her commitment to “autoimmune advocacy and the impact that hustle culture and burnout can play on your skin and your entire body. I think this brand has permission to talk about more than what we’re putting topically on our skin, but to engage with our community on a deeper level.
“I feel like I just got my life back,” Lee said. “It’s sort of interesting — I don’t think many people go through this every 15 years — but 15 years ago I woke up and started the company and now, 15 years later, I woke up with a new family. It’s a very exciting next chapter.”
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