London-based feelunique.com (feelunique) is now under private equity ownership following Palamon Capital Partners £26 million purchase of the company.

Founded in 2005, feelunique is an online retailer of haircare, skincare, cosmetics and fragrances products from its base in the Channel Islands.

The deal sees Palamon buy a majority shareholding from the company’s founders and early-stage investors. It will provide capital to support feelunique’s growth plans.

Sirius Equity is investing alongside Palamon as part of the deal. Following Palamon’s investment, Sirius co-founders Robert Bensoussan will join the board of the company as chairman and Jim Sharp will join the Board as a non-executive director. Bensoussan is also the chairman of L K Bennett, a board member of Interparfums and former investor in and CEO of Jimmy Choo.

Aaron Chatterley, CEO of feelunique, comments, ‘We are excited to have gained the backing of Palamon whose expertise in the on-line retail space convinced us that they would be ideal partners.

‘Given our ambitious growth plans and the size of the opportunity, it was important to partner with a firm that had both the financial resources and a clear vision of how the market will evolve.’

Prior to landing the acquisition of feelunique, Palamon completed the exit of Espresso House back in September. Palamon agreed the sale of the Swedish coffee bar chain Espresso House to Herkules Private Equity III, a Norwegian private equity fund.

Former Jimmy Choo CEO Bensoussan says that feelunique has developed an ‘incredibly strong platform’.

He adds, ‘We believe there is a very exciting opportunity to develop the business and I am excited to be partnering with Palamon and the management team to help the business fulfil its potential.’