Advent International has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a majority stake in Los Angeles-based body care brand Salt & Stone.
The deal, of undisclosed size and valuation, comes as Salt & Stone closed 2025 with $165 million in revenue. It also grew double-digits across all channels for the time period, which included Amazon, Sephora and its own website (accounting for 40 percent of sales), per the brand.
“We are doing incredibly in all channels. DTC, wholesale, the business is on fire right now,” said Nima Jalali, a former pro snowboarder, who founded the brand in 2017 when a knee injury made him more conscious about his overall health, leading him to explore creating nontoxic body products.
White space for the brand includes international expansion, with Sephora Europe and Space NK in the U.K. on the horizon, and broadening its customer bases. The core customer is Millennial with a fairly even gender split.
“We have people that have said they’ve switched deodorants for the first time in 67 years,” said Abby Tellam, the brand’s chief marketing officer. “The younger consumers that are interested in fragrance are discovering the brand. The brand is resonating and it is incredibly broad.”
Though the products themselves are squarely in the body and personal care space, including body washes and its hero deodorant, Jalali considers the brand just as much a fragrance brand as a body care one. That was part of what attracted Advent.
“We felt the right alignment and connection on where [Tellam and Jalali] wanted to take the brand, and where they were driving equities with consumers around a luxurious feel but a clean product that aligns nicely with wellness trends but also delivers a fantastic experience,” said Dave Paresky, director at Advent International. “They’ve built an amazing deodorant people love, the body wash is really highly regarded. And they’ve created new categories with the body mist that seem to potentially be a third pillar of momentum.”
While Salt & Stone gives the firm entrée to a new category, Paresky said the deal was more about supercharging Salt & Stone’s success than it was about complementing its existing portfolio.
“We try to have brands that have like-minded views on where the brand’s full potential can be. Then we try to support them with resources and experience,” Paresky said. “We don’t have a prescriptive portfolio construction approach. We’re trying to find brands that are doing amazing things in their core category.”
As a part of the deal, Jalali, Tellam and president Meagan Rosson will continue in their roles after the deal closes. Chris Elshaw will become Salt & Stone’s chair of the company. Jalali will maintain a minority stake in the brand, while Humble Growth, which invested in 2024, will exit.
Advent counts Skala Cosméticos, the publicly traded Olaplex, Parfums de Marly, Initio Parfums Privés, and the Orveon brands in its portfolio. There has been media speculation that Henkel AG is eyeing Olaplex, while it has also been reported Advent is looking to sell Parfums de Marly and Initio Parfums Privés.
Advent International was advised by Goldman Sachs. Raymond James advised Salt & Stone.
