The Brazilian cosmetics company Natura &Co has announced the launch of a corporate venture capital fund, dubbed Natura Ventures.

Jointly managed by Brazilian impact investment firm Vox Capital, the new fund is equipped with R$50m (USD 9.2m) in initial capital for the first three years.

Natura Ventures intends to back up to 15 startups, providing between R$2m (USD 0.37m) and R$10m (USD 1.8m) in seed-stage companies focusing on the circular economy, beauty and customer service technology developers, mainly in Brazil.

“Natura has been doing open innovation for over 20 years, and we had already worked in some way with corporate venture capital but without having an official VC instrument,” commented José Manuel Silva, vice president of new business at Natura & Co Latin America.

“Over the last nine months, we have worked hard to plan our next 15 years, and we believe that the time has come to have our own instrument, channelled towards our innovation strategies. It gives us greater firepower.”