Under her eponymous West Hollywood-based venture capital firm, designer Rachel Zoe has been carving out cleaner and greener pastures.
Known in the fashion world for her celebrity styling and track record of entrepreneurship (even the creation of “The Zoe Report”), Zoe is trying her hand at financing the next suite of sustainable companies. Founded in 2020 amid the pandemic, her VC firm Rachel Zoe Ventures invests in seed-stage and early-stage ventures, increasingly with a zero-waste or sustainable bend.
Luxury jewelry is one of those spaces.
“One of the things I’m really excited about now: Oscar Massin [a French heritage jeweler embracing lab-grown diamonds]. I think we’re going to see this incredibly massive movement into sustainable luxury. We’ve seen it in food, in packaging…I think it’s such a broader mission,” Zoe told WWD.
Earlier this month, Rachel Zoe Ventures and another celebrity investor, Kate Hudson, backed climate-neutral, lab-grown diamonds at Luximpact-owned French jeweler Oscar Massin. They each took minority stakes (undisclosed sums) in Oscar Massin, and will be working with the jeweler to advance its sustainable luxury aims.
Zoe also invested in zero-waste consumer goods company Cleancult in an effort to bring more zero-waste options to consumers.
The company sells laundry, cleaning sprays and soaps in reusable paper-based carton packaging and stylish glass refill bottles, where applicable. Coconuts, juniper, pineapple, grapefruit and other biodegradable elements are tapped in Cleancult’s high-efficacy formulas. With this combination, Zoe believes Cleancult is uniquely positioned to help retailers reduce plastic waste as well as bring zero-waste solutions to the masses. Laundry and soap refills retail for $10, while cleaning bundles start at around $40.
To navigate the noise in the crowded sustainability landscape, Zoe said first and foremost, “the product has to speak for itself,” along with the usual gamut of believing in the founders. “[And], will people see the value in it? Is it an accessible price point?…Certainly, in this category specifically.” The uncaptured aesthetic element is products “that actually look so great in your house.”
Her advice for a sustainable tune-up at home involves examining everyday products, like packaging, and working through a detox of makeup, skincare and clothing (opting for recycled fabrics where possible). “Always choose eco-packaging. Those are kind of the easiest to do,” she said, adding, “I feel like we could all use digital invites, and that can make a big difference.”
“Anything that I choose to invest in or get involved with as an adviser has to be something I feel has a big impact on the industry and the world. It’s not the first sustainable business out there — there’s hundreds.…That’s one of the reasons I wanted to get involved in Cleancult because the pricing is so accessible,” Zoe said. “I have this huge issue with how expensive organic produce is.…How do we expect people to choose boxed water over plastic water when a case of plastic costs $5 versus $25 [for boxed water]. The bigger companies have to do their part.”