UK startup AGORA lands over €5 million and launches new social commerce platform for the beauty industry

Launching out of stealth today, it has raised a seed round of around €5.4 million led by Draper Esprit with participation from Lakestar, Angel Capital Management, and other investors. Co-founders Riccardo Basile and Elizabeth Craft Townsend-Rose launched AGORA with the aim of bringing the breadth and excitement of an offline beauty shopping experience online. AGORA features exclusive deals and, in time, aims to become the largest online shopping mall for beauty brands in Europe. AGORA’s social commerce model takes inspiration from the emerging trend towards user-generated content that has been keenly adopted amongst Asian e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and Little Red Book in China. In 2021, AGORA plans to scale social selling and build commerce features, allowing global and independent brands to launch flagship stores on the platform.