Founder stories: Anna Brightman, Founder of Upcircle

Anna Brightman is the co-founder of UpCircle, a beauty brand that repurposes by-product ingredients into skincare products. They’re stocked in major retailers including Space NK, Sainsbury’s, and Holland & Barrett. Read on to discover how Anna made the leap from supermarket grad scheme into beauty business co-founder.

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Anna Brightman and her co-founder (and brother) Will were so convinced of the need for UpCircle that they ignored industry experts and advisors that tried to warn them off launching. “They said it’s too forward-thinking, you’re trying to tackle issues of waste and in arguably the most shallow and fickle industry that exists”.?

Despite these warnings, Anna and Will decided to push ahead. Their first product was coffee scrubs, but instead of using new ingredients, they reworked leftover coffee grounds from coffee shops to stop them from going to waste.

“The gap really was that no one was embracing upcycled circular byproducts of core skincare ingredients, and that was what we made our key USP. I think that it’s that distinct difference that has made us grow so quickly”.??

Taking the leap required forward planning, and sacrifice. Anna started working on the business while still in a full-time role on the Aldi graduate scheme, and rather than spending money on rent for an expensive London office, they moved back into their parents house for the first two years of running the business. To keep the business running, they raised their first round of investment early on, and a Virgin StartUp loan also helped them along the way.

Anna describes every day as bringing unique challenges.

“Our product development process is incredibly complicated and a lot more time consuming and expensive than most brands because we are the first [UK] brand working with ingredients in this way”.

During the pandemic, their supply skyrocketed, but the shutdown of the hospitality industry forced them to find new ways to continue upcycling and creating their products.

Now, they’ve successfully expanded their team survived Brexit and now have an expansion plan that they hope will take them across the Atlantic.?

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At time of publication (02.09.22) UpCircle is open for investment on Crowdcube. You can own shares in the business from ￡11.37.

Visit the pitch page.

This article was first published on 02.09.22