Budget beauty giant e.l.f. continues its wooing of Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumers with a deal to buy influencer Hailey Bieber’s cosmetic brand Rhode.
The Oakland-based cosmetics company signed a definitive agreement to acquire Rhode in a deal valued at $1 billion, the company announced Wednesday. The deal consists of $800 million in cash and stock to be paid at closing, as well as a potential $200 million in earnout consideration over the next three years, contingent on Rhode’s performance after the sale.
“We found a like-minded disruptor in Hailey Bieber and the Rhode team,” e.l.f CEO Tarang Amin told Fortune. “I’ve been in the consumer space for 34 years. I’ve never seen a business like this….It’s just incredible the level of consumer fervor and community that this brand has been able to build.”
E.l.f. announced the acquisition alongside its fourth-quarter and full fiscal 2024 earnings, posting $332.6 million in quarterly net sales, a 4% year-over-year increase, as well as a 28% boost in year-over-year annual net sales to $1.3 billion. The company did not provide fiscal 2026 guidance due to tariff uncertainty.
Amin hailed e.l.f.’s ability to attract Gen Z and Gen Alpha shoppers, saying, “We have the consumers everyone wants.”
E.l.f.’s acquisition of Rhode aligns with Amin’s observations around Gen Alpha and Gen Z’s growing interest in wellness as a complement to cosmetics.
“We see a real blurring of the lines, actually, even between cosmetics and skincare,” Amin said. “Having skincare benefits in even your cosmetics has proven to be really successful for us.”
“Rhode is a brand where consumers will camp out overnight, wait 14 hours in a line for a pop-up in LA, not not just for the product, but to buy into the entire lifestyle of the brand,” Amin said. “So that is the thing that we believe has real staying power: her instincts, her aesthetic, her vision for this brand.”
